A Florida mother was arrested and charged with child neglect after leaving her four children home alone for nearly three days while she was in Las Vegas, the sheriff’s office reported.
Irene Miller was taken into custody after a 911 operator received a call on October 21 from one of the children at the home in Kissimmee, who reported “that his 9-year-old brother had been injured when a dumbbell fell on his head,” the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office stated in a press release.
When deputies arrived at the residence, they found four children—aged 14, 12, 11, and 9—with no adult present to supervise them.
As paramedics transported the injured child to a nearby hospital to treat what turned out to be an apparently minor injury, deputies reached Miller by phone.
“She told the deputy that she was working in Las Vegas and would return on October 23, 2026,” the sheriff’s office stated. “Deputies learned that Ms. Miller had departed for Las Vegas on October 18, 2026.”
According to the statement, Miller told deputies that a babysitter would travel from Tampa in the mornings to get the children ready for school and check on them after classes. She noted that she did not require the babysitter to stay overnight at the home with the children.
Kissimmee is located near Orlando and about 70 miles east of Tampa.
While the children were taken to their father’s home, sheriff’s detectives were dispatched “to meet Irene Miller as she got off her flight from Las Vegas on Friday morning,” the statement indicated. Miller, 50, was charged with four counts of child neglect that did not result in serious bodily injury and was booked into the Orange County Jail.
“The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office will not tolerate child neglect,” said Sheriff Chris Blackmon. “These cases will be investigated, and charges will be filed against parents who fail to properly supervise or care for their children.”
