In mom’s own words: What happened the night Jordan Brooks died

Palermo, N.Y. — Jordan Brooks’ mom revealed to investigators what happened in the family’s Oswego County home the night her 17-year-old son died, according to new documents obtained this week by Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard.

That evening last May 9 started uneventfully, according to the 1-page statement Lisa Waldron gave Oswego County Sheriff’s Office investigators the same night her son died. The statement was obtained by Syracuse.com through a Freedom of Information request.

Waldron said Jordan’s stomach hurt so she gave him Pepto Bismol and Ibuprofen.

At 9 p.m., she said she put her son in a bath to clean him and let him soak, which she said helped him with this therapy. Jordan had cerebral palsy that, among other things, made moving difficult.

While he was in the bath, she said they talked about a new video game coming out, Resident Evil.

Waldron said she picked up Jordan and carried him to his bed. She said she put his shirt on and went to put his diaper on.

That’s when she realized something was wrong.

“I noticed he wasn’t talking to me anymore,” she said. “I looked up and noticed he wasn’t breathing.”

She grabbed her phone and called 911. As the phone rang, she said she tried to help her son.

“I grabbed his nose and blew a breath in his mouth,” she said. “911 told me to get Anthony (her husband) to take over and he did CPR.”

She said they did CPR until the fire department and police arrived to take over. Jordan was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Jordan died from sepsis and malnutrition. He weighed only 55 pounds – the average weight of a boy half his age. He had many open, bleeding sores. His tailbone was exposed and his hip implant was visible through his skin, according to a state report reviewing the death.

Lisa Walrdon, 43, and Anthony Waldron, 46, were charged March 16, 2022 with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person.

Anthony Waldron did not cooperate with the investigation and did not make a statement, according to a sheriff’s spokesman.

The Waldrons previously declined an interview with Syracuse.com.

The state Office of Children and Family Services, which investigated the death, ruled that county Department of Social Services workers inadequately investigated allegations against Jordan’s parents before his death.

Teachers, aides, and therapists filed numerous complaints to DSS about Jordan over several years, they said in statements to the Oswego County Sheriff’s Office.

During investigations by the county, Jordan was not adequately interviewed and was not asked about his bedsores or allegations he was not cared for properly, the state said. The workers also failed to check with his medical providers about his condition and took his mother’s word that some care was optional, the state said.

The new documents obtained this week by Syracuse.com also reveal that a school therapist recommended a feeding tube for Jordan, but his parents objected. They also show that the school staff at times were afraid to call county child protective services for fear it would anger Jordan’s parents and his parents would treat him worse. They still made the calls.

A physical therapist told investigators that she first met Jordan when he moved to the Mexico School District for eighth grade in September 2018, according to her 8-page statement to investigators. She also turned over three years of progress reports, daily notes and annual reviews.

“Upon meeting Jordan I was eager to work with him as I could see the potential he had given the right opportunities,” the therapist said.

Jordan was always full of smiles and laughs, the therapist said. But she said those smiles and laughs diminished after school staff made a call to CPS in September 2019.

“... Jordan became a shell of his former self, rarely joking and laughing as he previously did,” the therapist said.

Teachers felt more calls to CPS were needed but worried about making Jordan’s life more difficult, she said. The staff did make more calls to try to get Jordan help.

At one point, the therapist said she recommended that Jordan have a feeding tube, something that angered Lisa Waldron. She felt her son had “a sizable appetite and ate lots of food at home,” the therapist said.

The therapist said Lisa Waldron didn’t take good care of Jordan’s needs. When he started to get sores the school nurse would need to clean and dress the wounds for Jordan, she said.

She also said that bandages were not changed. Following a long weekend or an absence Jordan would have the same bandage on, now dirty, the therapist said.

School staff started to ask Jordan strategic questions to gauge if he had been put to bed, she said. Jordan would always respond in answers the therapist said she felt were carefully coached by his mother.

Once the pandemic began the therapist said she would ask Lisa Waldron questions about Jordan’s care in an attempt to understand how he was doing since she could not physically see him.

Lisa Waldron started canceling appointments with the therapist, she said. It was a delicate balance to not upset Lisa, she said.

In March 2021, school staff had a meeting over Zoom with both Anthony and Lisa Waldron. The couple was upset CPS had been called, did not agree with recommendations from therapists, and wanted to cancel Jordan’s speech therapy, she said.

Anthony yelled at the school staff and Lisa stood next to him and agreed, the therapist said.

“The last thing any of us wanted was to make like more difficult for Jordan at home and for the parents to discontinue our services so we wouldn’t be able to monitor him at all,” she said.

The therapist spoke with a CPS caseworker the second week of April 2021 and explained that the care Jordan was receiving was inadequate and that his limited range of motion and pain was not normal.

After the conversation, the therapist felt something was finally going to happen.

The therapist would see Jordan for the last time on March 11, 2021. The last physical therapy session school staff would have with Jordan was on April 26, 2021. It lasted 15 minutes because Jordan was in too much pain, she said. Lisa Waldron would cancel the rest of Jordan’s therapy sessions.

Jordan died 13 days later.

The therapist made her statement to investigators two weeks after Jordan’s death.

“I do not know the exact cause of death for Jordan...., I do not know the exact circumstances under which he passed away,” she said. “All I know is that I feared for his safety, his well being and his life under the care of his parents, and that now, he is no longer with us.”

More Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard coverage on Jordan Brooks