A Minnesota mom is facing felony charges after allegedly faking one son’s illness and treating her two other kids for diseases they didn’t actually have.
Authorities arrested Jorden Nicole Borders, a 32-year-old mother in Crosslake, on a warrant on Wednesday following a months-long investigation by the Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office, court records show. She is charged with several counts of child torture and stalking.
According to a criminal complaint, first reported by local news outlet Fox 9, Borders withdrew blood from her 9-year-old son and flushed it down the toilet before his doctor’s visits. The filing suggests Borders did so in order to keep the child sick.
The complaint indicates that the boy told investigators that Borders “kept drawing my blood and blood and blood” using a syringe and a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) line and that she warned him, “Don’t tell anyone.”
Borders withdrew the blood, causing her son’s “hemoglobin to deplete,” the filing says. The child told cops he felt “sick-sleepy” afterward.
The nine-year-old was hospitalized in March of this year “with the concern of his hemoglobin numbers dropping,” the complaint states, adding that “the only explanation of his numbers dropping is that someone was removing blood from his body.”
Borders allegedly claimed that the hospital’s lab removed too much blood from her son. But her two other children told police they witnessed their mom take blood from their brother frequently and that she ordered them to discard it in the toilet. The complaint says that an 8-year-old sister told cops that Borders collected the blood in a cup.
Meanwhile, the mom is accused of self-diagnosing the 8- and 11-year-old siblings with osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as brittle bones disease.
Borders may have had a motive in keeping her kids sick, or at least appearing sick: The complaint says she was receiving funds from the state to care for the 9-year-old, along with gifts and cash totaling more than $35,000 from several local nonprofits.
While the other two children didn’t have injuries, the document states, Borders forced them to wear casts and neck braces.
The 11-year-old son told investigators that Borders stole supplies from a local hospital and used them to place casts on him. Cops discovered the boy “has been in a cast for 796 days or around 2 years and two months of his life,” the document alleges.
A forensic interview conducted on Nov. 21 revealed even more disturbing accusations against Borders, according to the complaint.
The 11-year-old son told investigators that Borders “would choke all three children and throw them across the house.” She also allegedly threatened the 9-year-old boy with a hammer and, in at least one episode, threw it at him.
Borders “would make them all stand outside in just underwear for a long time” and “stay in their rooms unless she wanted something, then they could come out to do something for her,” the filing adds. “They had to clean the house, do the dishes, laundry, etc.”
When Borders asked the 11-year-old to fetch her something and he didn’t hear her, she allegedly grabbed him by the throat and held him against the wall. The child told police Borders attacked him that day while he was reading a book.
The complaint says that Borders choked him for so long he couldn’t breathe and his vision went blurry before she threw him against the wall.
The oldest sibling added that Borders would make the children go outside in the cold for long periods of time and hit him with a spoon, charging cords, and “a belt with things on it.”
According to the sibling, Borders made him tell people his 9-year-old brother couldn’t walk.
The 11-year-old also said Borders ordered him to “puke” at the doctor’s office and forced him to cough so that doctors would think he had asthma when he really didn’t. The complaint alleges the 11-year-old “would get asthma medication but he didn’t need it” and that “sometimes his dad would use it.”
The 9-year-old shared similar accusations with cops, saying his mother would choke him and his siblings and force them to go outside in winter. The boy “said he was super cold and his legs and feet were burning,” the filing alleges. “He doesn’t know why they… had to go outside.” Asked about a “typical day” living with Borders, the boy said, “I was never safe.”
Borders also fed the 9-year-old through a PICC line when it wasn’t medically necessary, the complaint alleges. The child had tried to sneak food into his room but Borders and his father would search his room and find it, then punish him with spankings.
The boy “also reported that he had to sleep on the floor with no clothes on,” the filing continues. “He never had a bed.”
An 8-year-old sister told authorities that Borders warned her and her siblings that she’d kill them, and that Borders had threatened her 9-year-old brother the most. The complaint states that the girl would hear the 9-year-old brother screaming when Borders brought him to his bedroom. Like her siblings, the sister told investigators Borders would choke her until she couldn’t walk and felt like she was going to pass out.
The complaint also suggests at least one teacher grew suspicious of what was happening at home. The girl told police that on one occasion, Borders “busted” her 9-year-old brother’s head and caused it to bleed. Borders falsely “told the teacher” that the boy hit his head against the corner of a wall, the filing adds.
It’s unclear whether the children’s father knew the truth of the kids’ injuries and fake illnesses. The sister reported that Borders wouldn’t allow the 9-year-old boy to walk when their father was home and he was ordered to stay in a wheelchair. The girl told cops that if their dad knew the boy could walk, he would realize Borders “was lying.”
According to the document, the sister said Borders would tell the 9-year-old “to say bad words to their father so that he would hit” him. The sister also reported that Borders instructed her to bite her mom, so she could blame the marks on the 9-year-old.
In July of this year, cops executed a search warrant at Borders’ home and uncovered syringes and casting materials. After interviews with the children on Nov. 21, authorities attempted to arrest her at the house but were unable to find her. Crow Wing County Jail records show Borders was arrested two days later.
Records show that a 37-year-old man sharing Borders’ address was also taken into custody on Nov. 23 on a pending charge of aiding an offender to avoid arrest.
Borders has previously posted about her children’s alleged health struggles on Facebook. In May of 2021, she posted a photo of her kids—with a little girl wearing a neck brace—with a photo frame that says, “National OI Awareness Week.” She also shared photos of her kids, spreading awareness of osteogenesis imperfecta, from 2017 to 2019.
Court records show Borders’ bail is set at $200,000. She does not yet have an attorney listed in public records.
