diff --git a/tree.go b/tree.go
index a15e0b42..580abbaf 100644
--- a/tree.go
+++ b/tree.go
@@ -818,7 +818,71 @@ walk: // Outer loop for walking the tree
 			return nil
 		}
 
-		// Handle wildcard child, which is always at the end of the array
+		// When wildChild is true, try static children first (via indices)
+		// before falling back to the wildcard child. This ensures that
+		// case-insensitive lookups prefer static routes over param routes
+		// (e.g., /PREFIX/XXX should resolve to /prefix/xxx, not match :id).
+		if len(n.indices) > 0 {
+			rb = shiftNRuneBytes(rb, npLen)
+
+			if rb[0] != 0 {
+				idxc := rb[0]
+				for i, c := range []byte(n.indices) {
+					if c == idxc {
+						if out := n.children[i].findCaseInsensitivePathRec(
+							path, ciPath, rb, fixTrailingSlash,
+						); out != nil {
+							return out
+						}
+						break
+					}
+				}
+			} else {
+				var rv rune
+				var off int
+				for max_ := min(npLen, 3); off < max_; off++ {
+					if i := npLen - off; utf8.RuneStart(oldPath[i]) {
+						rv, _ = utf8.DecodeRuneInString(oldPath[i:])
+						break
+					}
+				}
+
+				lo := unicode.ToLower(rv)
+				utf8.EncodeRune(rb[:], lo)
+				rb = shiftNRuneBytes(rb, off)
+
+				idxc := rb[0]
+				for i, c := range []byte(n.indices) {
+					if c == idxc {
+						if out := n.children[i].findCaseInsensitivePathRec(
+							path, ciPath, rb, fixTrailingSlash,
+						); out != nil {
+							return out
+						}
+						break
+					}
+				}
+
+				if up := unicode.ToUpper(rv); up != lo {
+					utf8.EncodeRune(rb[:], up)
+					rb = shiftNRuneBytes(rb, off)
+
+					idxc := rb[0]
+					for i, c := range []byte(n.indices) {
+						if c == idxc {
+							if out := n.children[i].findCaseInsensitivePathRec(
+								path, ciPath, rb, fixTrailingSlash,
+							); out != nil {
+								return out
+							}
+							break
+						}
+					}
+				}
+			}
+		}
+
+		// Fall back to wildcard child, which is always at the end of the array
 		n = n.children[len(n.children)-1]
 		switch n.nType {
 		case param:
diff --git a/tree_test.go b/tree_test.go
index 8cc55f77..23339af4 100644
--- a/tree_test.go
+++ b/tree_test.go
@@ -1044,26 +1044,22 @@ func TestTreeFindCaseInsensitivePathWithMultipleChildrenAndWildcard(t *testing.T
 	// These lookups previously panicked with "invalid node type" because
 	// findCaseInsensitivePathRec picked children[0] (a static node) instead
 	// of the wildcard child at the end of the array.
-	recv := catchPanic(func() {
-		tree.findCaseInsensitivePath("/aa", true)
-	})
-	if recv != nil {
-		t.Fatalf("unexpected panic looking up '/aa': %v", recv)
+	out, found := tree.findCaseInsensitivePath("/aa", true)
+	if found {
+		t.Errorf("Expected no match for '/aa', but got: %s", string(out))
 	}
 
-	recv = catchPanic(func() {
-		tree.findCaseInsensitivePath("/aa/aa/aa/aa", true)
-	})
-	if recv != nil {
-		t.Fatalf("unexpected panic looking up '/aa/aa/aa/aa': %v", recv)
+	out, found = tree.findCaseInsensitivePath("/aa/aa/aa/aa", true)
+	if found {
+		t.Errorf("Expected no match for '/aa/aa/aa/aa', but got: %s", string(out))
 	}
 
-	// Also test case-insensitive lookup (this was crashing too)
-	recv = catchPanic(func() {
-		tree.findCaseInsensitivePath("/AA/AA", true)
-	})
-	if recv != nil {
-		t.Fatalf("unexpected panic looking up '/AA/AA': %v", recv)
+	// Case-insensitive lookup should match the static route /aa/aa
+	out, found = tree.findCaseInsensitivePath("/AA/AA", true)
+	if !found {
+		t.Error("Route '/AA/AA' not found via case-insensitive lookup")
+	} else if string(out) != "/aa/aa" {
+		t.Errorf("Wrong result for '/AA/AA': expected '/aa/aa', got: %s", string(out))
 	}
 }
 
@@ -1086,15 +1082,13 @@ func TestTreeFindCaseInsensitivePathWildcardParamAndStaticChild(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 
 	// Should NOT panic even for paths that don't match any route
-	recv := catchPanic(func() {
-		tree.findCaseInsensitivePath("/prefix/a/b/c", true)
-	})
-	if recv != nil {
-		t.Fatalf("unexpected panic looking up '/prefix/a/b/c': %v", recv)
+	out, found := tree.findCaseInsensitivePath("/prefix/a/b/c", true)
+	if found {
+		t.Errorf("Expected no match for '/prefix/a/b/c', but got: %s", string(out))
 	}
 
 	// Exact match should still work
-	out, found := tree.findCaseInsensitivePath("/prefix/xxx", true)
+	out, found = tree.findCaseInsensitivePath("/prefix/xxx", true)
 	if !found {
 		t.Error("Route '/prefix/xxx' not found")
 	} else if string(out) != "/prefix/xxx" {
@@ -1105,8 +1099,8 @@ func TestTreeFindCaseInsensitivePathWildcardParamAndStaticChild(t *testing.T) {
 	out, found = tree.findCaseInsensitivePath("/PREFIX/XXX", true)
 	if !found {
 		t.Error("Route '/PREFIX/XXX' not found via case-insensitive lookup")
-	} else if string(out) != "/prefix/XXX" {
-		t.Errorf("Wrong result for '/PREFIX/XXX': %s", string(out))
+	} else if string(out) != "/prefix/xxx" {
+		t.Errorf("Wrong result for '/PREFIX/XXX': expected '/prefix/xxx', got: %s", string(out))
 	}
 
 	// Param route should still match