Jorden Borders: Child Torture, Medicaid Fraud, and 39-Year Sentence

Jorden Borders is a Crosslake, Minnesota mother who was sentenced on August 7, 2025, to 468 months — 39 years — in prison for torturing her three children, attempting to murder her 9-year-old son by repeatedly drawing his blood before doctor’s visits, and defrauding Minnesota’s Medicaid program of tens of thousands of dollars by fabricating her children’s medical conditions.¹ Crow Wing County District Court Judge Patricia Aanes convicted her on all 11 counts following a bench trial in June 2025.

What She Did to Her Children

Borders’ three children — a boy who was 11, a boy who was 9, and a girl who was 8 at the time charges were filed — were subjected to more than five years of abuse that combined physical violence with a sustained pattern of deceiving doctors about their health. Prosecutors described the conduct as “medical child abuse.”²

The most serious conduct involved her 9-year-old son. Borders forcibly withdrew blood from him using a syringe, a PICC line, or a central line before his medical appointments, causing him to arrive with dangerously low hemoglobin. The boy told forensic interviewers that his mother drew his blood into a cup and made him and his siblings flush it down the toilet. He said he often felt “sick-sleepy” and that his mother warned him not to tell anyone. Borders also told other people the boy was on a ventilator and discussed “end of life” decisions for him, none of which was true.³

For her other two children, Borders self-diagnosed osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease, and forced them to wear casts, boots, and neck braces despite having no injuries or fractures. The 11-year-old told investigators he had been kept in a cast for over two years using materials his mother had stolen from doctors. She forced one child to wear unprescribed hearing amplifiers, which caused a boil on the child’s ear, and instructed another to vomit and cough during appointments to fake asthma and get prescription medication.²

The children also described routine physical and emotional violence. They were hit with charging cords, belts, and spoons. They were choked. They were forced to stand outside in the cold without clothing until their bodies felt like they were burning. Borders withheld food and threatened them with knives and guns. The 9-year-old said he was kept in a wheelchair at home to hide from his father that he could walk. The youngest told interviewers her mother acted “like a nice lady” when their father was home.⁴

Removal and Charges

The children were taken into protective custody in stages during 2022. The 9-year-old was removed in May, and his two siblings in July.⁵ Forensic interviews were conducted in June 2022 and again in November 2022. In the earlier sessions the children largely did not disclose the abuse, and the youngest said she felt safe with her parents. The November interviews produced far more detailed accounts.⁴

On November 23, 2022, the Crow Wing County Attorney’s Office charged Borders, then 32, with three counts of child torture and three counts of stalking.³ The following month, Borders and her husband agreed to terminate their parental rights in a separate proceeding.⁵ In February 2024 the case was referred to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office, and prosecutors added one count of attempted murder and four counts of theft by false representation, bringing the total to 11.²

The Medicaid Fraud

The theft counts came from Borders’ exploitation of Minnesota’s Medicaid program. She gave false information to Crow Wing County Community Services about her children’s medical conditions to obtain approval for Personal Care Assistant services, then claimed to provide those services herself and collected more than $18,000 in payments. Investigators estimated she received over $35,000 in total from the State of Minnesota and from nonprofit foundations by faking the children’s conditions.²

The Trial

Borders waived her right to a jury and tried the case to Judge Aanes alone. The trial began in May 2025 and ran roughly three weeks. The prosecution’s central evidence was the recorded forensic interviews with the children, which were played on large courtroom screens. Judge Aanes ordered that both the June and November 2022 sessions be shown so she could evaluate the children’s credibility across the earlier non-disclosures and the later detailed accounts.⁴ The defense called no witnesses, and nothing in the reporting indicates Borders took the stand.⁶

On June 4, 2025, Judge Aanes found Borders guilty on every count: one of attempted murder, three of child torture, three of stalking, and four of theft by false representation.⁷ The judge also found that prosecutors had proved aggravating factors: that Borders abused her position of trust as the children’s mother, that one victim was particularly vulnerable, and that she acted with “particular cruelty.”¹

The 39-Year Sentence

On August 7, 2025, Borders received 468 months in prison, broken down as:

240 months for attempted murder
114 months for one count of child torture, consecutive
114 months for a second count of child torture, consecutive
21, 23, 23, and 21 months on the four theft counts, consecutive to each other but concurrent to the other sentences

No separate sentences were imposed on the third child torture count or on the three stalking counts. Asked if she wished to speak, Borders answered, “No, your honor.”⁵ Attorney General Ellison called the crimes “some of the most heinous and agonizing I have seen in my time as Attorney General.”⁸

Minnesota’s Child Torture Statute

The child torture convictions were brought under Minnesota Statutes Section 609.3775, a law that took effect August 1, 2021. It defines torture as “the intentional infliction of extreme mental anguish, or extreme psychological or physical abuse, when committed in an especially depraved manner,” and carries up to 25 years in prison and a $35,000 fine per count.⁹ Because the statute is not retroactive, the torture charges against Borders applied only to conduct on or after August 1, 2021, even though the abuse had been going on for years before that.

Where the Children Are Now

Borders’ parental rights were terminated in late 2022, and the children have since been adopted. Their adoptive parents submitted a victim impact statement at sentencing, asking the court for a sentence that would show the children “the state saw their pain and they were worth saving.”⁵

1
HHS OIG. Jorden Borders Sentenced to 468 Months in Prison
2
Minnesota Attorney General. Jorden Marie Borders Found Guilty
3
Fox 9. Mom Steals Son’s Blood, Forces Siblings to Dispose of It
4
Brainerd Dispatch. Video Interviews of Children Are Shown in Court on Day 9 of Borders Trial
5
Brainerd Dispatch. Crosslake Mom Who Tortured Children Sentenced to 39 Years
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Brainerd Dispatch. Borders Guilty on All Counts in Child Torture Trial
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HHS OIG. Jorden Borders Guilty on All Counts
8
Minnesota Attorney General. Jorden Borders Sentenced
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FindLaw. Minnesota Statutes Section 609.3775