- Jorden Borders, 35, of Minnesota, has been sentenced to nearly 40 years in prison for torturing her three children and falsely claiming they were sick to collect Medicaid payments, authorities said
- Borders would draw blood from her son, then 9, so doctors would think his hemoglobin levels were low
- Borders made another child vomit and pretend to have breathing problems to falsely obtain asthma medication, according to authorities
A Minnesota woman has been sentenced to 39 years in prison after being convicted of torturing her three children and falsely claiming they were sick to collect fraudulent Medicaid payments.
On Thursday, Aug. 7, a Crow Wing County judge handed down the lengthy sentence to Jorden Marie Borders, 35, of Crosslake
On June 4, after a three-week trial, Crow Wing County District Court Judge Patricia Aanes found Borders guilty of all 11 charges against her including child torture, stalking, theft by false representation and attempted murder, according to a statement from Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Aug. 7.
Calling Borders’ crimes “some of the most heinous and agonizing I have seen in my time as Attorney General,” Ellison said in the Aug. 7 statement, “I am praying for her children’s recovery from the suffering and trauma they endured.”
Borders committed “medical child abuse by performing specific acts against her children that led to them presenting with false medical conditions to their medical providers,” Ellison said in a June 4 statement.
The horrific crimes came to light in May of 2022, when the Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office began investigating Borders for child maltreatment, Lakeland PBS reported.
According to the criminal complaint obtained by Lakeland PBS, in March of 2022, one of Borders’ children was admitted to a local children’s hospital because his hemoglobin numbers were dangerously low.
Borders claimed the hospital had taken too much blood from the child, according to the complaint.
But in Nov. 2022, authorities questioned the children, who said their mother would forcibly draw blood from her son, who was 9 at the time, just before doctor’s visits, using a syringe or through a central line, according to the criminal complaint.
“Borders also self-diagnosed her children with other diseases, including osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease) and forced her children to wear boots, casts, and neck braces even though they did not have any identified fractures or diagnosed injuries,” Ellison said in the June 4 statement.
“Another child stated that Borders would instruct the child to vomit at the doctor even though he didn’t need to, and to cough as if he had asthma, at which time asthma medication was prescribed,” Ellison said in the June 4 statement.
The children all testified that Borders hit them with charging cords, belts, and spoons, “made them stand outside in the cold without clothing until their bodies felt like burning, withheld food, and regularly threatened to kill them,” Ellison said.
At times, Borders threatened to kill the children with knives and guns, Ellison said.
“Social media evidence from Borders’ accounts indicated that she regularly discussed ‘end of life’ decisions for one of the children with others, including at one point falsely stating that one of her children was on a ventilator and that they wouldn’t know the cause of his death until an autopsy,” he said.
In addition, Borders provided false information to Crow Wing County Community Services so one of the children could receive personal care assistant (PCA) services, Ellison said.
“Borders claimed to provide these PCA services and received over $18,000,” Ellison said.
By the time Borders was arrested on Nov. 23, 2022, she had “physically, verbally, and emotionally abused her three minor children for more than five years,” Ellison said in the June 4 statement.