FBI Offering up to $10,000 Reward for Information in Search for Missing Nevada Teen

Naomi Irion, 18, of Fernley, Nev., makes a purchase shortly before authorities say she disappeared before dawn, on March 12, 2022. Lyon County Sheriff's Office via AP

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the location of an 18-year-old Nevada woman who was abducted from a Walmart parking lot earlier this month and has been missing since.

Naomi Christine Irion was last seen (pdf) in the Walmart parking lot in the city of Fernley in Lyon County, Nevada, on March 12 at approximately 5 a.m. Fernley is approximately 30 miles east of Reno.

Irion was catching an employee bus to work at a Reno-area Panasonic facility close to her home in Casey Valley where she lives with her older brother, officials said.

She was wearing a blue Panasonic company shirt, a gray cardigan sweater, gray pants, and brown boots and was carrying a black purse at the time she went missing.

Sheriff’s officials and the FBI haven’t detected any signal from her iPhone and have been unable to locate it since her disappearance.

However, officials did locate her vehicle three days later near the Sherwin-Williams Western Emulsion Plant and said forensics teams and officers found “evidence was discovered leading investigators to believe Naomi’s disappearance was suspicious in nature” according to a Lyon County Sheriff’s Office press release.

Surveillance video showed a man wearing a mask and hooded sweatshirt getting into Irion’s car outside the Walmart store having previously paced up and down around the parking lot.

The vehicle then exited the parking lot.

Lyon County sheriff’s Detective Erik Kusmerz told reporters in Fernley on March 22 that Irion was active on social media and her cellphone until 5:23 a.m., a minute before the man entered her car.

On Friday, the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office said they have arrested Troy Driver, 41, from Fallon, Nevada, in connection with Irion’s disappearance. He’s currently being held at the Yerington Jail on kidnapping charges and is due in court on March 30.

Authorities said they have impounded and taken in for evidence a pickup truck that they believe may have been involved in Irion’s disappearance.

However, the investigation is still ongoing.

Irion’s older brother, Casey Valley, reported her missing when she didn’t return home on March 13. Irion had been living with her brother after moving to Nevada from the South African capital of Pretoria in August 2021.

Naomi’s father, Herve Irion works for the U.S. State Department in the foreign service and is currently stationed in South Africa alongside his wife, Diana. Irion’s parents have both flown to Nevada to help search for their daughter.

Meanwhile, an online fundraiser has been launched to help assist Irion’s parents with the travel costs and other expenses related to the search for Naomi and has so far raised over $37,000.

“No piece of information is too small to report at this point,” Diana Irion, said at a press conference last week. “We need everyone’s help across the nation… She could be anywhere.”

Irion is 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs between 230 and 250 pounds, according to the FBI. Her hair is naturally brown but has been dyed black and she has green eyes, although officials noted that one eye has a brown tint to it. She also has a septum piercing and a tattoo of a smiley face on her right ankle.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.