A Kissimmee woman was arrested at an Orlando-area airport after deputies said she left her four children home alone while traveling for work, the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office said.
Body-camera video released by the sheriff’s office shows deputies approaching Irene Miller, 50, as she stepped off a plane, escorting her through the terminal and placing her in handcuffs, the office said.
Deputies responded to the Kissimmee home shortly after 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 21 and found four children, ages 9, 11, 12 and 14, with no adults present, the sheriff’s office said. The arrest came two days after one of the children called 911 to report that a dumbbell had fallen on her 9-year-old brother’s head, the office said.
Fire rescue crews took the injured boy to Celebration Hospital, where he was treated and discharged, the sheriff’s office said. Deputies reached Miller by phone; she told them she was working in Las Vegas and planned to return Oct. 23. Deputies learned she had left Florida on Oct. 18.
Miller told deputies she had arranged for a babysitter to travel from Tampa in the mornings to help the children get ready for school and check on them afterward, and that the sitter was not required to stay overnight, the sheriff’s office said. Authorities contacted the children’s father, who agreed to take all four to his home while detectives made plans to meet Miller when her flight landed.
Deputies arrested Miller on four counts of child neglect without great bodily harm and booked her into the Orange County Jail, the sheriff’s office said. “The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office will not tolerate child neglect,” Sheriff Chris Blackmon said. “These cases will be investigated, and charges will be brought against the parents who are not properly supervising or caring for their children.”
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
