POLICE SAY WOMAN FATALLY RAN OVER HER 5-YEAR-OLD GRANDSON IN EARLY-MORNING INCIDENT
LEESBURG, Florida — November 12, 2025. A 57-year-old Florida grandmother has been charged after allegedly striking and killing her five-year-old grandson while driving under the influence early Sunday morning — a tragedy investigators called “any parent’s worst nightmare.”
According to the Leesburg Police Department, officers responded around 7:00 a.m. to a residential neighborhood after reports of a child struck by a vehicle. When they arrived, they found the boy unresponsive in the driveway. Despite paramedics’ efforts, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver, identified as Nancy Jean Wiles, told officers she had been “backing out slowly” when she felt a bump and realized she had run over her grandson, who was playing behind the vehicle. Authorities said field sobriety tests indicated she was intoxicated, and her blood alcohol level measured nearly three times the legal limit.
Detectives say Wiles appeared distraught but failed to explain why she was driving so early after a night of drinking. She was taken into custody and booked into the Lake County Jail on charges of vehicular homicide, DUI manslaughter, and child neglect resulting in death.
“This is any parent’s worst nightmare — a completely preventable tragedy,” said Lt. Daniel Griffin, a Leesburg police spokesperson. “Alcohol, family, and vehicles should never mix, especially when children are nearby.”
Court records show Wiles has a prior DUI arrest from 2019, for which she received probation and mandatory alcohol counseling. The current case could carry a sentence of up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
Neighbors described the scene as heartbreaking. “We heard screams and saw the grandmother on the ground crying,” said one witness. “She kept saying, ‘I didn’t see him.’ It was awful.”
The child’s parents, who were inside the home at the time, are cooperating with investigators and have requested privacy. The case remains under investigation by Florida Highway Patrol and the State Attorney’s Office.
