The brother of Naomi Irion is speaking out about what he says were missteps by police investigating the disappearance of his younger sister, Fox News reports.
On March 12, Irion was abducted from the parking lot of a Walmart in Fernley, Nevada. The 18-year-old was found dead weeks later, her body buried in a desolate desert gravesite.
Authorities have arrested 41-year-old Troy Driver in connection with Irion’s disappearance, charging him with murder, robbery, burglary and destruction of evidence.
In a Facebook post on Friday morning, Irion’s brother, Casey Valley, expressed frustration and anger toward local law enforcement, alleging that he was forced to collect important evidence on his own and that police failed to act quickly.
“I called in Naomi as a missing person Sunday 3/13 at approximately 9:30pm,” Valley wrote in the post. “The deputy never came, he only called me at 11:23pm. He filed no missing persons report until 3/14 at around 9pm AFTER I WENT AND FOUND THAT FOOTAGE MYSELF.”
Valley added: “Naomi’s car wasn’t found until 36 hours after I made the initial call, and it was UNDER A HALF A MILE AWAY, IN CLEAR VIEW OF THE INTERSTATE.”
“I cannot stress enough how important the handling of this case was in the beginning for my sisters life,” Valley wrote in the Facebook post.
“If this deputy had followed the Lyon County Sheriff’s office procedure (as he is sworn to do), a BOLO (be on the look out) and a missing persons report would have been filed as soon as I had called on that Sunday. But he didn’t. Because he didn’t #trustthefamily.”
In a subsequent interview with Fox News, Valley clarified his remarks and said he believes the police need more resources to do their jobs.
“I don’t have anything against Lyon County,” Valley told Fox News. “I’m so thankful for them answering my texts at 3 o’clock in the morning and calling me when there’s an important update and bringing me into the command center of the searches and everything that they did to make our family be assured how hard they were working — and they are still working.
“And I don’t want any ‘defund the police’ talk to be attached to this. This is about the police needing more resources. Period.”
The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for comment from Daily Mail about Valley’s allegations, according to the news outlet.
Earlier this week, Irion’s body was found in a gravesite in a rural desert area in nearby Churchill County. Authorities are treating Irion’s death as a homicide but have not released the cause of death.
Valley and his family are now planning to hold personal safety classes for women in his sister’s honor, according to a Facebook post on Saturday.
Driver remains in custody pending $750,000 bail. He has a criminal record that includes serving 15 years in prison for his involvement in a murder and multiple robberies, KRXI-TV reports.
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[Feature Photo: Naomi Irion/Instagram]
