Vile mum 'stole' son's blood to cash in on benefits in campaign of 'heinous' abuse

A mother who subjected her children to years of calculated abuse - including “stealing” her nine-year-old son’s blood to fabricate a serious illness - has been jailed for nearly four decades.

Jordan Borders, 34, was sentenced last week to 39 years in prison at Crow Wing County District Court after being convicted of a catalogue of shocking crimes, including attemptedfirst-degree murder, three counts of child torture, stalking, and multiple theft offences.

The court heard how Borders embarked on a three-year campaign of cruelty against her three children, inventing and exaggerating medical conditions to secure more than £14,000 a month in state benefits and a further £27,000 from charitable organisations.

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Prosecutors said she self-diagnosed two of her children with brittle bone disease - a rare condition they did not have - and forced them to wear unnecessary medical devices, including neck braces and plaster casts stolen from a doctor’s office.

Her 11-year-old son was kept in casts for two years, while her nine-year-old was made to use a wheelchair when his father visited. Borders’ twisted scheme began after the younger boy suffered an unexplained drop in hemoglobin levels.

When medical tests failed to confirm a diagnosis, she accused hospital staff of taking too much blood. But suspicions grew among doctors across several hospitals as her children’s health problems multiplied without medical cause.

The truth emerged when Borders’ eight-year-old daughter and older son told police in Minnesota, US, that they had witnessed their mother taking blood from their brother.

The boy himself described feeling “sick-sleepy” after the extractions. Investigators later found syringes in the family home.

The abuse extended far beyond fabricated illnesses. In harrowing testimony, the children described being forced to stand outside in freezing temperatures without clothing, starved as punishment, and threatened regularly. The nine-year-old slept on the floor and was subjected to ongoing medical charades to maintain his mother’s lies.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison condemned the crimes, saying: “Borders’ crimes are some of the most heinous and agonising I have seen in my time as attorney general. The facts we proved in court are nothing short of horrifying.

“It strains the imagination and breaks my heart into pieces to think about the torture and anguish - physical, mental, and emotional - that Borders inflicted on her own children.”

Judge Patricia Aanes, who presided over the case, said Borders had acted with “particular cruelty,” abusing her position as a parent to exploit her children for personal financial gain.

The sentencing followed a June conviction in which jurors heard extensive evidence of calculated deception and prolonged physical and psychological harm.

Borders was also found guilty of four counts of theft by false representation, after authorities traced thousands in fraudulent benefit payments and donations linked to her fake diagnoses.

Child protection experts have described the case as one of the most extreme examples of medical child abuse - sometimes referred to as Munchausen syndrome by proxy - in recent US history.

Borders will now serve her sentence in a state correctional facility, while her children are understood to be in safe care. Authorities say they hope the punishment sends a clear message that “such calculated and appalling abuse will be met with the full weight of the law.”