A Minnesota woman will spend nearly four decades in prison after being convicted of torturing her three children, fabricating illnesses to secure medical treatments, and collecting fraudulent Medicaid payments.
On Thursday, Aug. 7, Crow Wing County District Court Judge Patricia Aanes sentenced 35-year-old Jorden Marie Borders of Crosslake to 39 years behind bars. The sentencing follows her June 4 conviction on all 11 charges against her, including child torture, attempted murder, stalking, and theft by false representation.
According to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the case involved “some of the most heinous and agonizing” crimes he has encountered. “I am praying for her children’s recovery from the suffering and trauma they endured,” he said in a statement.
Investigators say Borders’ abuse followed a disturbing pattern of “medical child abuse,” in which she deliberately caused or exaggerated her children’s symptoms to deceive doctors. Authorities determined she would draw blood from her then-9-year-old son before medical visits to make his hemoglobin levels appear dangerously low. In another instance, she instructed a child to vomit and feign breathing difficulties so asthma medication could be prescribed.
Borders also falsely claimed her children had other serious illnesses, including brittle bone disease, and forced them to wear medical devices such as neck braces and casts without any diagnosed injuries.
The abuse extended far beyond fabricated medical conditions. Court documents detail years of physical and emotional cruelty: striking the children with belts, charging cords, and spoons; making them stand outside without clothing in freezing temperatures; withholding food; and threatening to kill them with knives and guns.
The criminal complaint also describes social media posts in which Borders discussed “end of life” decisions for one of her children and falsely claimed he was on a ventilator. She allegedly told others that the cause of his “death” would only be known after an autopsy—despite the child being alive.
Borders’ actions also had a financial motive. Ellison’s office said she provided false information to Crow Wing County Community Services to secure personal care assistant benefits for one child, collecting more than $18,000 in Medicaid funds for services she claimed to provide.
The abuse came to light in 2022, when the Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office began investigating child maltreatment allegations. By the time Borders was arrested in November of that year, investigators concluded she had been physically, verbally, and emotionally abusing her children for over five years.
Borders now faces what amounts to a lifetime removed from her victims. Authorities say the focus will remain on helping the children recover from years of calculated, sustained harm.
