Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Teen Girl Remains Just Found in Shallow Grave: Who Murdered Naomi Irion?

Episode Date: March 31, 2022

Police have found the body of missing teen Naomi Irion after receiving a tip that led them to her gravesite.18-year-old Naomi Irion was last seen on security footage, sitting in her vehicle while waiting for the shuttle she takes to work at Panasonic in the Reno-Sparks area. The footage also shows a man walking from the direction of a homeless camp and lurking among the parked vehicles. Naomi’s brother, Casey Valley, says that security footage seemed to show the suspect saying or doing something that made Naomi move from the driver’s seat to the passenger seat. Irion was in the passenger’s seat as the man drove away. Investigators found Naomi’s blue 1992 Mercury Sable on March 15 at the Fernley industrial park.Police arrested Nevada man Troy Driver in connection with Naomi Irion’s disappearance. He has been charged with first-degree kidnapping with bail set at $750,000. Driver’s arrest came nearly two weeks after Naomi Irion disappeared.Joining Nancy Grace Today: Wendy Patrick - California prosecutor, author “Red Flags” www.wendypatrickphd.com 'Today with Dr. Wendy' on KCBQ in San Diego, Twitter: @WendyPatrickPHD Dr. Debbie Joffe Ellis - Psychologist, Professor at Columbia university in NYC, Author, Global Presenter, Author: Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (2nd Edition), DebbieJoffeEllis.com, Twitter: @DrJoffeEllis Dr. Tim Gallagher - Medical Examiner State of Florida www.pathcaremed.com, Lecturer: University of Florida Medical School Forensic Medicine. Founder/Host: International Forensic Medicine Death Investigation Conference Karen L. Smith - Forensic Expert, Lecturer at the University of Florida, Host of Shattered Souls Podcast, @KarensForensic, barebonesforensic.com Alexis Tereszcuk - CrimeOnline.com Investigative Reporter, Writer/Fact Checker, Lead Stories dot Com, Twitter: @swimmie2009  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. In the last hours, a blow to the search for teen girl Naomi Arianne. Take a listen to this. The search for a Nevada teenager stalked and abducted from a Walmart parking lot has ended with the discovery of her body. Police say detectives acting on a tip found the remains of 18-year-old Naomi Arianne buried in a remote area of Churchill County.

The teenager was abducted in her own car while waiting for a shuttle bus on her way to work in Reno. ARRION BURIED IN A REMOTE AREA OF CHURCHILL COUNTY. THE TEENAGER WAS ABDUCTED IN HER OWN CAR WHILE WAITING FOR A SHUTTLE BUS ON HER WAY TO WORK IN RENO. A 41-YEAR-OLD EX-CONN WAS CHARGED TODAY WITH FIRST DEGREE KIDNAPPING. TROY DRIVER HAS A VIOLENT

CRIMINAL RECORD, INCLUDING A SENTENCE OF 15 YEARS IN PRISON FOR HIS ROLE IN A 1997 MURDER IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. you were just hearing our friends at KTLA 5 breaking the heart-rending news this after Naomi's mother joined us begging, begging for help in finding her girl.

Listen. We're also looking for her purse. It's a black bag and any of her clothing. She was wearing a the blue Panasonic t-shirt and she was wearing a gray cardigan and I think she was wearing gray sweatpants and blue UGG boots. They were either gray, black, or brown. Gray, black, or brown. I think they were like a faded black. Yes. They're knockoff UGGs, so they're not name brands.

Yes. So if you find any of that just laying out, please call. It could be vital to saving her life. And that's our number one goal right now please save my daughter and bring her home please anything any little tiny bit of information please call her mother diana breaking down in tears the more we talked about the search for her daughter, the more she broke down. I wonder if verbalizing in that way what was happening made it too real for her. In the last hours, we learned the body of teen girl Naomi Erion has been found, we believe, in a shallow grave.

Joining me, an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now, Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, author of Red Flags on Amazon. She's the host of Today with Dr. Wendy on KCBQ. You can find her at WendyPatrickPhD.com. Dr. Debbie Jaffe Ellis, psychologist, Professor, Columbia University in New York, author of Rational Emotive Behavior. You can find her at DebbieJaffeEllis.com. Renowned medical examiner joining us from the state of Florida, Dr. Tim Gallagher, lecturer, University of Florida Medical School of Forensic Medicine,

founder and host International Forensic Medicine Death Investigation Conference. Karen Smith, forensic expert, lecturer, University of Florida host of a hit series, Shattered Souls Podcast. But first, to Alexis Tereschuk, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter joining us. Alexis, take a listen to our friend Brianna Connor, ABC 13. It was, in fact, a tip from a neighbor that helped investigators find driver and the truck connected to the case. Another tip eventually led to Naomi's body. Investigators have not said whether they believe driver is responsible for Naomi's death. He's due back in court on April 5th. Alexis Tereschuk, tell me everything you know about the location of Naomi's body. Teen girl Naomi Erion remains have just been found in a

remote rural area. Alexis, what do we know? Somebody called a tip into the police. We don't know who it is, how they knew this, because it's a very specific tip of where a body is. They told the police there was a shallow grave. I don't know if they said there was a body or a grave, but they pointed the police in the exact right location. This is a rural area, and what they found there is a body or a grave, but they pointed the police in the exact right location. This is a

rural area, and what they found there is a shallow grave. I understand that it is Churchill County, as in Winston Churchill, Churchill County. Now, I'm trying to figure out, Wendy Patrick, what do we know, or Alexis Terrestri, anyone on the panel that is familiar with that area, Churchill County. From Fernley, Nevada, where she went missing, to Churchill County, Nevada, it's about an hour and 15 minutes. Okay, so here we go. Pick it up there, Alexis. You were in the middle of telling me about where she was found. Go ahead. So she was found in Churchill County, which is almost 60 miles away from where she went missing. She was found at Churchill County. She went missing in

Fernley, Nevada, and then was found in Churchill County. This is a rural county. Not even 3,000 people live there. So somebody called in a tip about this and led the police to her grave. Not to her in a house, her alive, unfortunately, to a grave, what they're calling a shallow grave. You know, that conjures up all sorts of images. Karen L. Smith is joining me, everyone, at barebonesforensic.com. Karen, a forensic expert. Karen, when I hear shallow grave, I don't want to hear that in the same sentence with a missing teen girl.

A shallow grave, in my experience, that's two or three feet deep max. Yeah. What does it mean to you? That's exactly right that's two or three feet deep max. Yeah. What does it mean to you? That's exactly right. One foot to three feet, Nancy. You know, that tells me so much about this crime that implements were purchased beforehand. There was premeditation. They had shovels.

Okay, look, you're the forensic expert. You've got to explain to everybody why you're saying that. I get you. Explain why. or a rake, or a pickaxe, or whatever it is. They have that with them, which tells me it's almost like a murder kit. This was pre-planned. This was premeditated. They have to dig that grave with something and then, you know, put a body in it. So that tells me everything about premeditation, Nancy. Karen Smith, that is an excellent point. To dig even a shallow grave, an implement is needed. However, in my mind, Wendy Patrick, this teen girl could have been murdered and then get the implement. First thing, they need to go to all the Walmarts, all the Lowe's, Home Depot's, Feed and Seeds. It's a

rural area. There could be one nearby that's an obvious choice to find out if anyone came in and bought a shovel or anything they could use to dig this hole, right? I mean, this guy might not be driving around in his car with a shovel in the back. That's exactly right. And thankfully, that's something you and I and others have been using for years is looking at surveillance video, especially in a rural area where you don't have a hundred stores to look at. You have less. And especially when you have and I love the murder kit. That's a great soundbite for what you doing that nowadays is when I started practicing law, the graininess of the photos almost made it indistinguishable to try to figure out

who you can recognize, what somebody is buying. But nowadays, we do have ways of really seeing what we need to see to try to figure out who might have bought this kit. And I have to say, this case really sort of makes us look at something that you would think would be as safe as a Walmart parking lot very differently. What do we know about the location? What, if anything, can we learn about the murder itself? To Alexis Terestic joining us from CrimeOnline.com, do we have a COD, cause of death, yet? We do not.

We do not have a cause of death. All we know is there was a Caucasian female body found and then it was identified. So we don't even know like if the body was all together, if the body was, you know, cut up. We don't know anything about the condition, how it was decomposed, whether the body, you know, she went missing March 12th. That is weeks ago. And so she, her body could have been out there in this shallow grave this entire time. It's cold. It's winter. There so she, her body could have been out there in this shallow grave this entire time. It's cold, it's winter. There could have, you know, the elements could have really caused a lot of decomposition.

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. To Dr. Tim Gallagher, medical examiner, joining us from the state of Florida. Dr. Gallagher, again, thank you for being with us. I'm trying to determine, A, how they identified her, and B, if we can figure out a cause of death after this time lapse. Dr. Gallagher, there are many ways to identify a dead person. You don't have to have DNA. As a matter of fact, when Gabby's body was found, she was wearing a T-shirt, Gabby Petito, that her parents immediately knew was hers. And we all have certain identifying things that we wear. It could be as simple as that. What are other ways other than DNA?

Well, that's a good way of a supporting piece of evidence that would lend to somebody being identified. But in order to identify somebody scientifically, it has to be something that's part of their body. And things that are part of their body could be a unique tattoo, as simple as that. Or it could be dental work that they had done that is shown up on the post-mortem x-rays. There are also unique features in the bones of the face

that if we take an x-ray of the remains and then we were able to get an x-ray of a person who is alive, we could match the bones of the face, you know, to... You mean if she had had an x-ray in life? Right, if she had an x-ray in life and we were able to acquire that x-ray and then compare it to the x-ray that we or somebody had a broken leg in life and you find out this person has a broken leg this girl to my knowledge did not have any tattoos or piercings other than her in her ears so that wouldn't help. But, you know, what about the fact that to Dr. Tim Gallagher, for years and decades, the Red Cross and others have relied on field tests,

immediate field tests to determine identity. What is that? The immediate field test to identify identity often relies on what we've been talking about before. Pre-injuries, it could be the repair of an injury. Sometimes they will put a metal plate in the leg to fix it, and that metal plate will have a serial number on it. We could remove the plate, find the serial number, look that serial number up, and it'll tell us the doctor, the patient, and when it was placed inside that leg.

And then we could identify the person that way. The field identification could be something as simple as stature. You know, is this a male? Is it a female? Is it an old person? Is it a younger person? You know, the Red Cross does do excellent work, but they go by an anatomical type of identification process where the scientific community now embraces a molecular or radiologic type of modality, you know, to identify somebody. What do you mean by the two modalities to identify?

You said radiologic and one other. Right. So a DNA type of identification process. Would be molecular. Radiologic is an x-ray. Is that what you're saying? Right, right. So x-rays or DNA.

Okay, so x-ray or DNA. I hear you. So you got x-rays, you got DNA, you have tattoos, you have clothing, you have teeth work, whether somebody had a cavity in the fifth grade, whether they wore braces, orthodontia, all of that can help identify someone if you don't have DNA already. We know for a fact, I don't know how her body was identified, but Naomi Erion, a teen girl missing out of Fernley, Nevada, her mother begged for help. Her remains have been found at what has been described as a, quote, grave site. As Karen L. Smith, forensic expert, has pointed out accurately, some tool

would have to have been used to dig a hole to put this young girl in. Can't do it with your hands. Now, I want to find out more about the fact that it is a remote area. Karen L. Smith, there's so much forensic evidence that can be learned, gleaned from the site. For instance, I believe he had to have lived either in the Fernley area or the Churchill County area. I mean, why would he go to that location? I mean, think about Scott Peterson. He lived in the Modesto area, but he disposed of Lacey's body at a spot familiar to him, the San Francisco Bay, where he routinely went fishing. What do you make of it? And what, if anything, forensically, can we learn from the gravesite? I agree. You know, you deal with these

perpetrators and most often they will stay in an area that is familiar to them, however far away that might extend. As far as the gravesite, Nancy, this is a desert location. You're dealing with either loose dirt or hard compact dirt and clay. You've got shoe prints, possible tire tracks. You know, sometimes these perps will dispose of something like maybe a cigarette butt or a soda can in the gravesite. I found receipts in gravesites that were disposed of with the body. And all of those clues can lead back to the person who did it. So they're going to have to sift through every single speck of that gravesite, which I'm sure they're doing. They use fine sifters

and they go scoop by scoop, bucket full by bucket full, looking for bullet shell casings, looking for small bones, looking for clothing items and jewelry and any other evidence that might have been disposed of in that gravesite. It's a long walk, Nancy, but they're going to get the job done. Back to Alexis Teresich joining us from CrimeOnline.com. I'm still intrigued about who called in the tip. Take a listen now to our friend Brian Enten. What we've learned from the Churchill County Sheriff's Office is that yesterday they followed up on what they called an investigative tip that took them out to a very, very rural part of the county. They found a grave site. They found a body. It was taken to the medical examiner's office. And today they were able to officially identify the body as Naomi's.

You remember, we've been covering this story all week. She is an 18-year-old woman. She is the daughter of a U.S. diplomat. She lived all over the world and recently moved here to Nevada to live with her older brother because she wanted a more normal life. She was used to living on these American diplomatic compounds. She wanted to go to college. She wanted to buy a car. She wanted to have a boyfriend. And she was in the Walmart parking lot back on March 12th when she was kidnapped.

This young girl had been very, very sheltered, according to what her mother, Diana, told us. They had lived all over the world, but always within a very tightly knit diplomatic community, going to certain schools, to American schools. She finally wanted to live with her brother in America and be like, quote, every other American teen. Take a listen now as we analyze what happened the morning she goes missing. Take a listen to Ashley Graham's KOLO. Naomi Erion went missing around five in the morning on March 12th from the Walmart parking lot in Fernley. Her brother didn't realize she

was gone until the next day. On Sunday night, I wanted to talk to her. So I was waiting for her to come home from work and she never came. Here's a photo of Naomi in June when she graduated from high school. She now lives with her brother and she was last seen on her way to work. And they confirmed that she had missed her shifts both Saturday and Sunday, which was really unusual. My daughter was extremely reliable. Her brother, Casey Valley, was worried when she didn't come home. He traced her steps and went to the bus stop at the Walmart, where Naomi usually hitched a ride to work in the Reno Sparks area. Guys, this is a girl that has just graduated from high school. Just graduated from high school.

She was working a job at a Panasonic center where she actually would put on what looks like a hazmat suit and put together build batteries for Panasonic. She wanted the, I guess, stereotypical life of an American teen. And this is what happened. At five o'clock in the morning, she has managed to get herself to a Walmart parking lot waiting on a shuttle bus to go to Panasonic. She's sitting in her car. It's dark outside. She's playing on Snapchat or Facebook or Insta and doesn't notice a man stalking her. No one would have known had it not been for the Walmart parking lot surveillance video. Listen to our friends at KOLO. Walmart had surveillance video and shared it with Casey. Here's a snapshot of that video showing the suspect. Casey says the video shows this man

getting into Naomi's car and driving off with her in the passenger seat. Once we found the footage, which appears to be nondescript male average height, average build completely covered up with a mask and a hood. Casey says no one recognizes the man in the video. Some monster takes them. You don't know what's happened. You don't know where they are and nobody even noticed she was missing. Naomi's mom feels helpless. She lives in South Africa and can only sit on the sidelines waiting for her son to call with any information. Just he tells me everything that he knows as soon as he knows it. That Walmart surveillance video was very, very chilling to Alexis Tereshchuk. Please describe it. So it's a Blackmont video.

You can see her. I'm sorry, you can see him and he's kind of pacing around the walmart parking lot so it's 5 30 in the morning remember that so it's not light yet there are not a lot of people there actually i'm glad you brought that up alexis because the walmart video shows that it's dark outside and what almost broke my heart is we learned that this little girl just graduated from high school would go and try to park under a lamp a street light in the walmart parking lot we've all seen them because she thought it would be safer take a listen to our cut three our friends at khou11 not shared according to the family in a local tv interview is video of him forcing his way into her car.

This person did say or do something to Naomi to make her move over from the driver's side to the passenger side. This wasn't chance. This was something that he was thinking about and he was very suspicious looking. Ariane's four-door sedan was later found in this industrial area where it was processed and from where authorities believe the suspect may have driven away in this dark Chevy pickup. We have no idea where she is. She's been missing for almost a week. Cartwright, who flew to Nevada to help in the search, believes someone may have betrayed Naomi's trusting nature. I can't think about how it will end other than us finding my sister. Two days after Naomi disappears, her car is found. Take a listen to our cut 7KOLO. Two days after Naomi disappeared,

Lyon County deputies found her car in the industrial park in Fernley. The sheriff's office says evidence found in the car indicates criminal activity. Her family assumes that because of what Naomi is not doing. She's 18. She's always on social media constantly and she has not been on social media since Saturday morning. We can't lose sight of what's really important, and that's Naomi's life. And time's ticking. We're out of time. To Dr. Debbie Jaffe-Ella, a psychologist joining us from Columbia University.

Dr. Debbie, we've talked many times about routine evidence, which is not to say typical. It is evidence of routine, behavioral evidence. The fact that this girl went dark on social media was significant to her mother. And rightly so, yeah. If there is something a person engages in regularly, enjoys it, and then stops without any warning or indication why, yeah, the mother was spot on in hearing her alarm bells go off loudly. You know, Wendy Patrick, we have analyzed criminal behavior thousands, countless times. What do you make of the perp's behavior as he stood and stared at her car and her sitting there in the dark under the parking lot light, just tapping away on Snapchat? What do you make of that? Had he seen her before? Why was he in the parking lot at five o'clock in the morning? You know, in a word, I think it goes to premeditation. What it shows is him thinking, strategizing, planning, plotting, looking at that vulnerability that people have when they're tied to their phones, whether they're on social media or making a call.

He took advantage of that level of distraction to make his move. So it really looks like it wasn't random whether or not he knew her. I mean, we'll probably find out more about that. But regardless, he saw a vulnerable victim and he went in for the kill. It may have been dark outside, but thankfully there was at least enough light that we can argue he knew what he was looking at, knew what he was doing, and probably knew what he planned to do. Karen Smith, you're the forensics expert. Weigh in. This is what I'm hearing, Nancy. You have a primary crime scene in her car. That is the primary crime scene. They say they found evidence of a struggle or evidence of something

horrible that happened in the car that tells me it's blood. Then you have the car found at this paint manufacturing company. Okay, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. You're right. Hold on. They absolutely said at the beginning there's evidence in the car that convinces us this is of a criminal nature. Right. She didn't just meet a guy and take off. That's right. Your assumption is that it's blood. Well, it would have to be something visible or something that could be detected with luminol or. Well, how about if our car was simply in disarray? Okay. So that's a good possibility. Like there had been a struggle. Absolutely. Let's go there. What I was going to say was you have a secondary crime scene in this pickup truck.

Was that parked there strategically so that this perpetrator could use that to haul her body 56 miles to the burial site? This was definitely premeditated. This wasn't something off the cuff, Nancy. Well, another thing is it's been said he walked up from a homeless encampment, but I don't think this guy was homeless. And I'll tell you why. Because he had access to another vehicle after he ditches her car at an industrial park, which I find significant too. He knew to go to an industrial park where her car would not be noticed for a couple of days, and it wasn't. And he had access to another car. A homeless person does not have access

to a pickup truck. I agree 100%. This is not a homeless person. This is somebody who has planned this, and I don't know if he was stalking her, if it was a, you know, spur-of-the-moment thing as far as him watching for someone or a young girl, period. I don't know. What in the world could he have said to her to make her move over? I don't understand. Maybe he threatened her with a gun? Absolutely.

He had some kind of implement, whether it was a gun, a knife, the implication that he had a weapon with him. You know, I don't know how big this man is, but if, you know, a girl and you have a man threatening you or saying something to you or displaying a weapon to you, that's where my mind goes. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. This is what we know right now. of this teen girl just graduating from high school have been found in a shallow grave, hastily dug in Churchill County. That's about an hour, 15 minutes drive away from her home where she lived with her older brother in Fernley, Nevada. What does that tell us about the perp? Was he from Churchill County? Did he kill her at his home in Churchill County? I'm thinking specifically of how we can obtain forensic evidence. But in the last hours, we also learn of a suspect. Take a listen to our cut 26,

our friends at Inside Edition. A suspect is in custody accused of abducting a Nevada woman two weeks ago. 41 year old Troy Driver was arrested and charged with kidnapping by the Lyon County Sheriff's Office. 18 year old Naomi Erion has not yet been located. She was last seen on surveillance video pulling into the parking lot of a Walmart where she usually parked her car to catch a bus to work. Police released video of the suspect they believe got in her car and left the morning of March 12th. They also released images of the vehicle they believe he was driving. Authorities say they have also located the pickup truck they believe was leaving the scene where Naomi's car was later found. Naomi's friends and family continue to hold out hope she will be found, and volunteer search efforts resume to locate her.

Anyone with information is still asked to call the Lyon County Sheriff's Office. At this point, that information would be what you know about 41-year-old Khan. That's right. He's a felon, Troy Driver. I guarantee you surveillance video picked him up leaving with her from that industrial park. Does it show him struggling with her? Does it show him with a gun to her back? How did he get her from her car into a truck? Was she already dead? What is the cause of death? How have they linked him, Troy's driver, to her?

Is it because of his car? To Alexis Tereska joining us from crimeonline.com, what do we know about 41-year-old Troy Driver? What we know is he has just finished serving a 15-year sentence for murder that he committed when he was 17 years old. So he has had a lifetime of crime. In fact, so when he was 17 years old, he was sentenced for a murder of a meth dealer. And he also pleaded guilty to three charges of second degree robbery of a Circle K convenience store and a Chevron service station, as well as breaking into a hardware store. So this location where he committed this crime, where he kidnapped Naomi and the murderer, is very well known to him because this is where he started off his life of crime.

So he knows that these are vulnerable areas. Are you talking about the Walmart parking lot near Fernley, or are you talking about Churchill County? The Walmart parking lot. I'm also curious where he did his time. I wonder if that was near where her body was found. I mean, I'm trying to get evidence. That's what I'm talking about. Did he kill her in Churchill County? Did he kill her before she was even taken out of her car? Did he take her somewhere and torture or rape her? Is there evidence there? I'm looking at a conviction, the possibility of convicting this guy. Is it him? How do we know it's him?

Regarding his criminal history, take a listen to our friend Paul Nelson, KTVN2. He served time in prison for his role in a 1997 murder in Willits, California. Driver was just 17 at the time. According to old articles, he pleaded guilty to accessory to murder after the fact and a string of robberies. A judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison, but he may have only.

He may have been released after 8 or after 12 years. The suspect in Naomi Erion's kidnapping is in the Lyon County Jail. According to the Ukiah Daily Journal, Troy Driver served time in prison for helping cover up a murder in 1997. It says he helped put the body of an

alleged drug dealer in a car trunk, then dumped him in the woods. It is upsetting to me that there's people. Out here in the general public that have these capabilities with this kind of past, the 41 year old was arrested Friday and Fallon and his Chevy pickup was impounded for evidence. Valley doesn't expect him to tell detectives where Erion is.

I would just try to relate to him as someone that also has family and ask him to put himself in our shoes. Well, apparently that didn't work. This guy's been in the pen before. He is not going to tell where the body is. However, a tipster calls in, and the remains of this teen girl just out of high school have been found. Now, I just learned a lot.

I want to go to Karen Smith. We know he's already put one victim in his last go-around after a string of robberies and a murder, being involved in a murder, he puts the victim in a car trunk and then dumps the body in the woods. You know what? That's what I call a similar transaction. Transporting a homicide victim in a vehicle and then dumping the body like it's trash out in some remote location. Same thing here.

Right. And he escalated because now it was a shallow grave, Nancy. It wasn't just dumping it in the woods. Now he's trying to cover up his crimes. This is not foreign to him. He's a monster. You know, the forensics, as far as I'm concerned, we have the linkage principle, the victim, the crime scene to the suspect.

And you link those three things, touch DNA, bloodstains, his truck, if that's his truck, you know, all of these different things that the crime scene investigators and detectives are going to be doing to put him in that truck, to put him in her car, to put him at the scene at the time of the crime. That's exactly what their job is. I have no doubt they're going to do it. I think I know what was found in her vehicle because before her body was even found, we know that he was charged with kidnapping this young girl. And he was also charged with kidnapping for the purpose of sex assaulting. So something in that car, whether it was her clothing, her underwear,

something that would suggest to police she was kidnapped to be raped. That's what I think is in the car. Yes, absolutely. And it's not hard to find, Nancy. If you have a semen stain, for instance, you use the alternate light source, which is just a rainbow in a box is what I call it. You use a blue light with orange goggles and that stain will luminesce. You take a sample of it. You cut the entire cushion of the car out if that's where it is. You take the entire piece of clothing.

You have DNA run on that stain, and there you go. Jackie, while we're talking, could you look up the location of Willits, California? W-I-L-L-I-T-S. I think I know where it is, but I'm not sure, as it relates to Fernley, Nevada, or Churchill County, Nevada. Because he did prison for a 97 murder in Willits, California. It's five hours. Five hours, okay. That's not really going to help me, but what is helping me prove or disprove his guilt is the similarity in the modus operandi, the method of operation. In that case, putting a murder victim in a vehicle, then dumping the body at a remote location, same exact MO. Speaking of the previous murder victim to Dr. Tim Gallagher, I wonder if his 97 murder victim

was killed in the same way this teen girl was killed. How can we determine Naomi Erion's cause of death? She's been in the elements for a couple of weeks now? Well, that's going to require obviously an autopsy. And the thing about what the evidence will show during the autopsy is that the marks that were made on the body while it was alive are still going to be there regardless of the decomposition. So if she was strangled, she would have damage around her neck. She would have damage around her neck.

She would have marks around her neck to show us that. If she was bludgeoned to death, she would still retain the skin breakage and the broken bones underneath. If she was shot, she may retain the metallic projectile. She may retain the bullet within her. If she was stabbed, she would have those type of injuries so even though there is decomposition medical science has advanced to such a degree now that that's a very little consequence in trying to determine the cause of death I'm getting information that the first victim was shot. Interesting.

I'm getting signals that Naomi may have died a strangulation death, be it manual or ligature. We wait to find out about that. Believe it or not, this guy's actually trying to get bond. Take a listen to our cut 28. This is pierce from colo 8 all rise for most of us 41 year old troy edward driver has been little more than a name and a mugshot since his arrest last friday this appearance in fernley justice court was by zoom for in the county jail he said little just one word answers affirming his name and receipt of the criminal

complaint. Still seeing him even on a screen was jarring for members of 18-year-old Naomi Arian's family in the courtroom. You know, having his face up there is a little bit of a shock, but he's just a human. Of greater concern was the possibility Driver might be released. He's being held on $750,000 bail. His attorney deferred any argument on the issue, but as things now stand, if he or his family posts 15% of that amount, he could be released. If that happened, Justice of the Peace Lori Matthews said it would be with severe restrictions, including wearing a GPS monitor, avoiding the town of Fernley altogether, but for court appearances and a daily check-in with authorities. Now, to Dr. Debbie Jaffe, LS psychologist, professor at Columbia University and author, Dr. Debbie, you think after a guy has done time, hard jail time, being implicated in a murder and a string of robberies,

then he would do anything not to go back to jail, right? Sounds highly likely. Yep, Nancy. Okay, I was expecting a little bit more from you other than yep. Something like the thinking that goes into the mind of a career criminal, how they're not worried about going back to jail. Their idea of my plan not going back to jail is don't get caught instead of I'm not going to break the law. Okay. Take two. Right. So why wouldn't the plan be I'm going to get a job. I'm not going to go back to jail. So help me God in heaven. Instead of,

wow, when I kidnap this girl and rape her, murder her, how can I not get caught and go back to jail? Why? Apparently, well, one possibility would be the urge to do what he did is more dominant than any tendency to think things through regarding avoiding this, that or the other. Obviously, the thrill or the potential satisfaction he thought he would feel blinded him from thinking things through about being caught, not caught, avoiding, not avoiding. Okay. We all have impulses.

Like, I have an urge right now, but I can't really get my fingers around his neck from this studio. So I'm going to have to control that impulse. Well, Nancy, if I could... Wait, is this Gallagher? Right. Gallagher, the medical examiner, is going to offer me a psychological opinion. Okay, stop everything.

We're listening. Well, just my observations, you know, and then the forensic scientist may or may not agree with me on this one, but I've gone to a lot of crime scenes where the living conditions that these people live under are just horrendous. And actually going to prison is like getting a step up. They get the meals, they get the shelter, they get the social construct is there. So it's actually getting a step up.

Leaving prison is the bad thing. going back is always the goal you know so that that's the mindset of some of these people and i'd offer the forensic scientist on your panel now to comment on that if that's her observations as well i agree i agree 100 dr tim gallagher dr gallagher, can I give you some friendly advice? Of course. I mean, you're renowned and esteemed far more than myself in your field, but you need to stick with being a medical examiner because you're trying to tell me he kidnapped, raped, and killed a teen girl just out of high school so he could get a better crib?

Stop. Okay. You know, Karen Smithith just tell me so well no no i've got a serious question a serious question i don't want to hear no offense dr gallagher gallagher's musings on a better zip code okay karen why is the trunk so important? And by the way, guys, I got some more information that I want to share with you. This guy actually has a LinkedIn. I don't advise that you try to link with him. The alleged killer in this case, the convict, Troy Driver, he's got a LinkedIn page that shows he worked in construction and for a mining company and as a safety coordinator and project supervisor. And here we go. He has also lived

in Elko, Nevada. I knew there had to be a connection to him being infernally, to him disposing of her body in Churchill County. He lived in Elko. Can you look it up for me real quick? How close is Elko to Churchill County? What were you saying, Karen? Well, first of all, I was going to say that the doc has, he does have a valid point in that he's been institutionalized. He's been in prison, what, 12, 15 years. So yeah, that's a valid point that if he does get caught, he knows what to expect. However, as I said before, he escalated this time. He buried the body as opposed to leaving it somewhere else where it would be readily found. So that tells me that his psyche

has developed to the point where now I'm going to hide the body, regardless of whether or not he was familiar with the area. That was for the detectives and you, of course, Nancy Grace, to find out whether or not he was familiar with that area. So yeah, I can see that point. Got me an answer? From Elko to Fernley, it is three hours. From Elko to Churchill County, it's four hours. He knew this area. It sounds like a triangle. For right now, Troy Driver is still behind bars. They're actually discussing

whether he could be released with an ankle monitor. Really? Murder number two? You know what, Judge? You take him home with you. We wait until Driver goes to trial. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off.

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