A Florida mother was arrested and charged with child neglect after she left her four children home alone for nearly three days while she was in Las Vegas, the local sheriff said Monday. Irene Miller was arrested after a dispatcher received a 911 call on Oct. 21 from one of the children at the Kissimmee home who reported “that her 9-year-old brother had been injured by a dumbbell that fell on his head,” the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. When officers arrived at the residence, they found four children, ages 14, 12, 11, and 9, and no adults caring for them. While paramedics were taking the injured boy to a nearby hospital for treatment of what turned out to be an apparently minor injury, officers located Miller by phone. “She told the deputy she was working in Las Vegas and would return on October 23, 2026,” the sheriff’s statement said. “Agents learned that Ms. Miller had left for Las Vegas on October 18, 2026.” Miller, according to the release, told agents he had a babysitter who came from Tampa in the mornings to get the children ready for school and check on them after school. Kissimmee is located near Orlando and about 70 miles east of Tampa. Miller also said he did not insist that the babysitter spend the night at the house with the children, according to the statement. While the children were taken to their father’s home, sheriff’s detectives were sent “to meet Irene Miller as she was leaving her flight from Las Vegas on Friday morning,” according to the statement. Miller, 50, was charged with four counts of child neglect without great bodily harm and booked into the Orange County Jail. On Monday, a search of jail records showed he was no longer behind bars. “The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office will not tolerate child neglect,” said Sheriff Chris Blackmon. “These cases will be investigated and charges will be brought against parents who do not adequately supervise and care for their children.”
