The man charged with the kidnapping and murder of Nevada teen Naomi Irion last year was found dead in his cell earlier this week of a suspected suicide.

Irion was kidnapped from a Walmart parking lot in Fernley in the early morning hours of March 12, 2022, where she was waiting to take a bus to her job at an electronics factory, as CrimeOnline reported. Surveillance video showed a man get into the driver’s seat of her car and drive away, with Irion in the passenger seat.

Irion’s car was found in an industrial park three days later, and her body was found in a shallow grave on March 30 in a remote area of Churchill County.

Troy Driver, 42, was arrested a few days before the body was found. He pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, kidnapping, and sexual assault.

The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office said deputies found Driver unresponsive in his cell during a routine hourly check shortly after 6 p.m. on Sunday. Deputies began CPR and called for an ambulance, and medical personnel took over from the deputies when they arrived. Their efforts to revive him were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead.

Preliminary reports indicated that he died from asphyxiation.

“I feel like his suicide is an admission of guilt,” Irion’s 34-year-old stepbrother, Casey Valley, told the Las Vegas Review Journal. “But I wish the justice system had the chance to give a verdict.”

Driver was housed in a maximum security cell with no contact with other inmates. The sheriff’s office requested a full investigation from the Nevada State Police.

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[Featured image: Naomi Irion/handout]