A Walmart parking lot, a hooded suspect and a missing teen: Where is Naomi Irion?
Naomi Irion, 18, vanished from a Nevada Walmart parking lot on 12 March while waiting for a shuttle to her job, Sheila Flynn writes
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There was nothing off about Naomi Irion’s routine early that Saturday morning.
The 18-year-old left the home she shared with her older brother in Fernley, Nevada, making her way in knock-off Ugg boots, a grey cardigan over her Panasonic work shirt and her beloved iPhone in hand, to the parking lot of a local Walmart.
It was a typical early start for Ms Irion, who had secured a job at Panasonic’s 94,000-square-foot Reno campus after moving to western Nevada with her brother last year. They are two of seven siblings, including three boys recently adopted from Ukraine; Ms Irion’s parents live and work in Pretoria, South Africa, where her mother is a teacher and her father works in the foreign service.
Ms Irion lived with her older brother, Casey Valley, a Navy veteran currently working as an engineer at Apple in nearby Sparks. After buying an energy drink at a gas station and parking at Walmart, she scrolled on social media on her phone until 5.23am, according to records. Then her activity stopped.
It was Mr Valley who first raised the alarm.
He’d gone to sleep early that Saturday night; because his sister’s days began before sunrise, however, he thought nothing of the fact she wasn’t there on Sunday morning.
But then she didn’t return Sunday night, and neither friends nor family had heard from her. Mr Valley began calling jails and hospitals across counties, to no avail. His stepfather in South Africa, who has access to Ms Irion’s accounts, confirmed that her last purchase had been around 5am at a gas station near Walmart.
A friend of Mr Valley’s girlfriend was the one who suggested that Walmart could hold some clues, he said.
“We tracked security down at Walmart, and they were very helpful – and I’m very thankful to them for letting us barge in on them and showing us that footage,” Mr Valley said last week at a press conference.
The footage showed his little sister having an alarming interaction with a hooded man in the parking lot.
“This person did say or do something to Naomi to make her move over from the driver side to the passenger side,” he said, noting it was then “that I reported it as a kidnapping”.
He called Panasonic. Ms Irion had neither shown up at work nor called all weekend. The family’s reality was about to turn into a living nightmare.
The teenager’s car was found two days after she disappeared, abandoned in an industrial area and showing signs of suspicious activity, authorities said.
Her phone was last traced to an area near Wadsworth, less than three miles away; it has not been used since and authorities, despite extensive official and volunteer searches involving everything from ATVs to horses, have failed to turn up any evidence of the device she so devotedly used.
There is video evidence, however – and it’s disturbing. In addition to the Walmart security footage that shows a person getting into Ms Irion’s car, the sheriff’s department has also released footage of the suspect beforehand – footage of him pacing erratically in front of the store, cars and their headlights.
Focus has also shifted to a vehicle pictured nearby, a pickup to which authorities believe the suspect had access. It’s a dark-coloured 2020 or newer Chevrolet four-door pickup with a price tag of at least $50,000, though the plates have not yet been identified.
Ms Irion’s sister, Tamara Cartwright, started a GoFundMe to raise money so she and other family members could head to Nevada to look for the teen. It has raised more than $33,000 so far, and both Ms Cartwright and Mr and Mrs Irion have arrived in Fernley from South Africa.
The sheriff’s department held a press conference on 22 March, just hours before a scheduled vigil for the missing teen in Fernley, where attendees are encouraged to wear rainbow colours, which Ms Irion loves.
Mr Valley, Ms Irion’s mother, sister and 13-year-old brother all choked up while speaking at the local press conference. They not only begged for information on the truck but also placed a noticeable emphasis on social media and the role it may have played in her disappearance, and any clues it may reveal.
“What I really want to say is that, if you have any information at all, that you need to come forward,” Ms Cartwright said. “If you have information about the vehicle, if you have information about the suspect, if you have information about my sister, I need you to come forward ... immediately.”
She continued: “Don’t post about it without talking to law enforcement first; don’t do anything without talking to law enforcement first. This is life or death for my sister.
“Life or death. You need no one’s approval before calling law enforcement; this is life or death for a beautiful and fun and amazing sister, daughter and friend.
“She was”, she said, before correcting herself to “she is”, “she’s just starting her adult life. She hasn’t even gone to college yet. She just graduated high school.”
Diana Irion, who spent 36 hours travelling from her home in South Africa, expressed fears that her daughter could be very far from the alleged abduction site.
“Because the incident happened so close to I-80, she could be anywhere – anywhere in the nation,” Mrs Irion said.
Lyon County Sheriff’s Deputy Eric Kusmerz also reiterated that multiple agencies were searching for Ms Irion “nationwide”.
“We’re releasing everything we can,” he said, though: “There’s a lot more that we know.”
Mr Valley urged anyone who’d even been in contact in recent months with his teenage sister to share any tidbits of information they might have.
“I make a plea to everyone – maybe people that are on the other side of the law that might no more: We need your help. This is a family. You have a family, too.”
Two days later, the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office said it had made contact with the owners of cars that were in the Walmart parking lot the morning of Ms Irion’s disappearance in hopes someone may have seen something.
The missing teen’s mother, barely holding herself together, said that any information “could be vital to saving her life – and that’s our number one goal right now.
“Please save my daughter and bring her home.”