Mom Charged With Neglect After Work Trip. Kids Placed With the Father Who Has a Restraining Order Against Her

News

By Sari Moon

Updated 43 minutes ago, October 30, 2026

Irene Miller, 50, of Kissimmee, Florida, arranged a daytime sitter for her 4 children while she worked in Las Vegas from Oct. 18 to Oct. 23. The sitter came from the Tampa area to help with school in the mornings and check on the children, ages 14, 12, 11 and 9, afterward. Capt. Kim Montes estimated the sitter’s hours at roughly 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.; the sheriff’s office said “she did not require her to stay the night,” leaving the children without an adult for about 16 hours a day.

Shortly after 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 21, the 9-year-old cut his forehead when a dumbbell he’d used to hold up a sheet for a blanket fort fell. His 11- and 12-year-old siblings called 911; the 14-year-old was riding his bike and returned after seeing emergency vehicles. The injured child was treated with glue at Celebration Hospital and released.

Montes said Miller was dismissive when deputies reached her in Las Vegas, told them she was working and hung up. She then called her 14-year-old, who was standing with a deputy and had the call on speaker, and scolded him: “Why are you calling 911? You’re going to get me in trouble,” Montes said. Miller didn’t return early.

Montes said the children and the home were clean, though there didn’t appear to be much food. The Department of Children and Families approved placing the children with their father, Mark Miller, 53. Deputies said the children were ecstatic to see him.

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Mark faces a pending misdemeanor battery charge from August over an allegation that he knocked a phone from Irene’s hand outside their children’s school; he’s pleaded not guilty. A Sept. 4 no-contact order requires him to stay 500 feet from Irene. She filed for divorce on Sept. 17 after 15 years of marriage.

Mark wrote on Facebook that he and the children were living in a motel. “She is not a bad person, but I think she made choices she didn’t fully think through,” he wrote.

Florida doesn’t set a minimum age for children to stay home alone or babysit. State safety guidance recommends waiting until 12 to leave a child alone and 15 for sibling babysitting. Under a 2025 state law, leaving a child home “for a reasonable period of time” is excluded from neglect unless it “constitutes willful and wanton conduct that endangers the health or safety of the child.”

Deputies arrested Miller at Orlando International Airport on Oct. 23 after she got off her return flight. She faces 4 counts of child neglect without great bodily harm and was released within 24 hours on a $4,000 bond. She hasn’t commented.

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