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 in order to receive fraudulent Medicaid payments.
On Thursday, August 7, a Crow Wing County judge imposed the lengthy sentence on Jorden Marie Borders, 35, of Crosslake.
After a three-week trial, Crow Wing County District Court Judge Patricia Aanes found Borders guilty of all 11 charges, including child torture, stalking, theft by false representation, and attempted murder, according to a statement from Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on August 7.
In an Aug. 7 statement, Ellison described Borders’ crimes as “some of the most heinous and agonizing I have seen in my time as Attorney General,” adding, “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 statement released on June 4.
The horrific crimes were discovered in May 2022, when the Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office began an investigation into Borders for child maltreatment, according to Lakeland PBS.
According to the criminal complaint obtained by Lakeland PBS, in March 2022, one of Borders’ children was admitted to a local children’s hospital due to dangerously low hemoglobin levels.
Borders claimed that the hospital took too much blood from the child, according to the complaint.
However, in November 2022, authorities questioned the children, who claimed their mother would forcibly draw blood from her 9-year-old son just before doctor’s appointments, using a syringe or 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,” according to a statement released on June 4.
“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 reported on June 4.
The children all testified that Borders beat 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.
Borders threatened to kill the children with knives and guns, Ellison claimed.
“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,” according to the report.
In addition, Ellison stated that Borders provided false information to Crow Wing County Community Services in order for one of the children to receive personal care assistant (PCA) services.
“Borders claimed to provide these PCA services and received over $18,000,” according to Ellison.
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,” according to Ellison’s June 4 statement.
