Mother disputes account of daughter’s death
Ten days after Christmas, Jorden Marie Simms’ gifts still sit underneath her mother’s Christmas tree.
On Dec. 20, Simms left her family’s house and didn’t return that night, her mother Deborah Sanchez said. The next time Sanchez saw her daughter was six days later as she laid brain-dead on a hospital bed with broken bones and bruises.
The evening of Dec. 26, Simms allegedly performed a grand escape. She freed herself from the belly-chain, ankle restraints and handcuffs that held her and then threw herself from a Graham County sheriff’s vehicle, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
More than a week after her daughter died, Sanchez struggles to come to terms with the loss. Her daughter’s past was not perfect, she said. More so, Sanchez fights to accept the narrative told by Graham County officials and Safford Police Department about what happened to Simms.
Sanchez holds onto the memories of her youngest daughter. Twentyeight-years ago Simms was born 71⁄2 pounds.
Simms would pick flowers from neighbors’ gardens for her mom. She pulled pranks, hiding behind furniture and then jumping out. Leftovers in the fridge wouldn’t stay long if Simms was home, Sanchez said.
But her daughter’s life took a turn about five years ago. Simms had lupus
and rheumatoid arthritis and went to see a doctor who prescribed her Oxycontin.
Sanchez said she asked the doctor if the drug would become addictive and was told that the low dose would not. Her question foreshadowed a history of drug use, which her mother said was used to self-medicate.
“Around 2015, when the Oxy wasn’t working on the pain any more, she went to something stronger,” Sanchez said. “I’ve never known anything about heroin. And when I read up on it, it scared me. I was worried for my kid.”
Sanchez said her daughter wanted to get help more often than she succeeded in detoxing. She said her daughter would begin the process for treatment but then leave before finishing the insurance paperwork.
Throughout this time, Sanchez helped care not just for her daughter but for Simms’ three children who were in her care by a Department of Child Safety “kinship placement.”
According to Sanchez, the children were taken from her care after Sanchez brought them to a hotel in Safford where Simms was staying. Simms had called her mom saying that she was hungry, and Sanchez brought food and the children with her.
The children were then placed in the custody of Sanchez’ estranged mother.
Simms’ grandparents legally adopted the children in October 2018, and the following year she had repeated shoplifting charges.
“Jorden wasn’t perfect. She had issues like most and used drugs for selfmedication,” Sanchez said. “But Jorden always loved, had a huge heart, always wanted to help other people out. She’s never had no violent crime, it’s been petty.”
Mother contests the officials’ story
Dec. 21: Simms was arrested by the Safford Police Department. Earlier in the month, she was accused of shoplifting more than $300 worth of items from a local Walmart.
When Simms was arrested, she had a felony warrant for theft and drug charges, which her mother says came from Simms taking a car belonging to her adoptive father’s girlfriend and having an old bag of heroin in her possession.
According to Simms’ mother, her daughter reported that arresting officer Jeremiah French sexually assaulted her on this day.
Dec. 23: Safford Police Department started an internal and criminal investigation into the sexual assault accusation and took Simms to the Graham County detention facility for a “specialized exam,” the Graham County Sheriff ’s Office said in a statement.
Sanchez received a call from her daughter this day saying that she was in jail and had been raped by French, the officer who arrested her.
Dec. 24: Safford Police Department put French on paid administrative leave.
Around 4 a.m., Simms was taken to the Graham County Adult Detention Facility again. At about 7:57 p.m., Simms said the detention officer who dressed her around 4 a.m. also “sexually assaulted” her, according to the Sheriff ’s Office.
Earlier that day, Sanchez went to the jail where she learned her daughter was in a solitary cell, wearing just a smock, and not getting help after she had allegedly been assaulted.
Dec. 26: The Sheriff’s Office took Simms to an “advocacy center” in Sierra Vista for a “specialized exam.”
A medical professional in Sierra Vista recommended taking Simms to Mount Graham Regional Medical Hospital in Safford for more exams before taking her back to the detention facility.
While approaching the hospital in Safford, police say Simms jumped out of the moving Sheriff ’s Office vehicle.
She allegedly jumped out of the vehicle about two blocks from the hospital, Safford Police Chief Joe Brugman said. It’s not clear how fast the vehicle was going.
DPS takes over Simms investigation
Details released by the county and the broken bones on only one side of her daughter’s body give Sanchez cause for alarm, she said.
Graham County Sheriff P.J. Allred originally said that Simms escaped from a Chevy Tahoe, but the sheriff ’s office later issued a statement naming the vehicle as a Ford Explorer. The sheriff’s statement as to why Simms was headed to Mount Graham Regional Hospital also differed from the press release.
Sanchez also found it suspicious that the county has not released the names of the officers who transported her daughter before the fatal incident.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety has taken over the sexual assault investigation, Simms alleged escape and all “events involving Jorden Simms,” according to the Sheriff’s Office.
DPS will not comment on the case until the investigation is complete, spokesperson Bart Graves said in an email.
What’s next for the family
On Friday, Sanchez and her husband Marty drove to Tucson to pick out her daughter’s urn, but it wasn’t easy. She felt that going to a mortuary made it more real that her daughter is not coming back.
“I still haven’t been to where the incident took place,” Sanchez said. “I haven’t been able to drive in town, I’m so paralyzed. I don’t want to be there anymore.”
They plan to make a visit Saturday to the site where her daughter lay on the road and have the first memorial for her daughter.
The family has yet to set a date for the memorial service and are looking to have it in February when a family member can be in town.
But even when the memorial service is done, Sanchez will keep planning her time around her daughter. She’s pushing to know what happened those days her daughter was in jail, whether excessive force was used, and she wants to keep her grief from happening to other families.
In the week and a half since her daughter died, the family has received an outpouring of local and national support.
“My heart is so broken. A big piece is gone and I’m not getting her back. I know her death is making a change, but it still does not change the fact that my baby is gone.”