The work trip ended on the jet bridge. When Irene Miller stepped off her flight from Las Vegas at Orlando International Airport on the morning of Oct. 23, detectives with the Osceola County Sheriff's Office were waiting for her — and the body camera was rolling.
Miller, 50, of Kissimmee, was arrested as she got off the plane and booked into the Orange County Jail on four counts of child neglect without great bodily harm, according to the sheriff's office. Deputies say that while she spent six days in Las Vegas for work, her four children — ages 14, 12, 11 and 9 — were home alone in Kissimmee with no adult staying overnight.
According to the sheriff's office, Miller flew out on Oct. 18. She told deputies she had arranged for a babysitter to travel from Tampa each morning to get the children ready for school and to check on them again after school. What she did not arrange, deputies say, was anyone staying the night. The sitter was not required to sleep at the house, and for five nights, the four siblings were on their own.
The arrangement fell apart on Oct. 21. Shortly after 8:30 p.m., one of the children called 911 from the family's home on Parkway Blvd. and reported that her 9-year-old brother had been hurt — a dumbbell had fallen on his head. Deputies who responded found the four children with no adult present. Fire rescue crews took the boy to Celebration Hospital, where he was treated and released, the sheriff's office said.
Deputies reached Miller by phone in Las Vegas. She told them she was there working and planned to return to Florida on Oct. 23, authorities said. Miller is a professional photographer; the New York Post reported that her Las Vegas client appeared to be connected to the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate franchise network, based on her social media. Deputies contacted the children's father, who agreed to take all four children to his home.
Detectives then arranged to be at the airport when Miller's flight came in. Sheriff's office body camera footage released afterward shows deputies meeting her as she exited the plane on Friday morning and walking her through the airport in handcuffs.
"The Osceola County Sheriff's Office will not tolerate child neglect," Sheriff Chris Blackmon said in a statement. "These cases will be investigated, and charges will be brought against the parents who are not properly supervising or caring for their children."
The case has also set off a genuine argument — because Florida law is murkier than the arrest makes it look. Florida has no statute that sets a specific age at which a child may legally be left home alone; the decision is left to parents. The state's child welfare guidance recommends that children not be left alone before age 12, and that older siblings not supervise younger children until they are 15. Child neglect without great bodily harm, however, is a third-degree felony in Florida.
Legal experts who spoke to the New York Post called Miller's arrangement "classic neglect" and a "recipe for disaster," while noting that the four felony counts could carry up to 20 years in prison if she were convicted on all of them. Other parents online have argued the opposite — that a 14-year-old watching younger siblings with a sitter checking in twice a day is not a crime. Florida Today reported the arrest itself has sparked widespread discussion on social media over whether deputies should have made it.
Miller and the children's father are in the process of divorcing, Florida Today reported, and messages seeking comment from her attorney had not been returned. The charges against Miller are allegations, and she is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court. Her four children remain with their father.
