Updated

Updated · Fox News · Oct 27

Florida Mother Arrested on 4 Child-Neglect Counts After Leaving Children Alone for 5 Days

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Oct 27

Florida Mother Arrested on 4 Child-Neglect Counts After Leaving Children Alone for 5 Days

Q: Why did a Florida mother leave four children alone for days while working in Las Vegas, and what made deputies call it child neglect?

She left them alone because she said she was in Las Vegas for work, but deputies said the arrangement she made did not provide adequate adult supervision for four children ages 9, 11, 12 and 14 over several days. According to the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, Irene Miller left Florida on Oct. 18 and planned to return Oct. 23. She told deputies she had a babysitter coming from Tampa in the mornings to help the children get ready for school and to check on them after school. But investigators said the sitter was not staying overnight, meaning the children were alone at night and otherwise without continuous adult care while their mother was out of state. The case came to light on Oct. 21 when one of the children called 911 after a dumbbell fell on the 9-year-old boy’s head. Deputies responding to the Kissimmee home found all four children there without an adult. The injured child was taken to Celebration Hospital, treated and released. Deputies classified it as child neglect because, in their view, Miller left minor children unsupervised for days without proper overnight or full-time adult care, creating a risk to their safety. Authorities emphasized that the injury call underscored the danger of that lack of supervision, even though the charges were filed as child neglect without great bodily harm. The children’s father was later contacted and took them into his care.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Oct 27

Osceola County deputies arrested 50-year-old Irene Miller on Oct. 23 as she stepped off a Las Vegas flight, charging her with four counts of child neglect.
A 911 call two days earlier triggered the case after a dumbbell fell on a 9-year-old boy’s head; deputies then found four children — ages 9, 11, 12 and 14 — home alone in Kissimmee.
Miller had left Florida on Oct. 18 for work and told deputies she planned to return Oct. 23; investigators said the babysitter she arranged came from Tampa only for school check-ins and did not stay overnight.
The injured boy was treated and released from Celebration Hospital, and the children’s father agreed to take all four while detectives arranged to meet Miller when her flight landed.