ST. PAUL, Minn. (TCN) — A 41-year-old man will likely spend the rest of his life in prison for killing and dismembering two of his girlfriends — both of whom went missing over the course of two years — and leaving their remains in a storage unit.
Court records show Joseph Jorgenson pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Manijeh “Mani” Starren and Fanta Xayavong. The Minnesota Star Tribune reports Jorgenson will get 40 years in prison for each count with the terms running concurrently. His formal sentencing is scheduled for February.
Starren’s family reported her missing to the St. Paul Police Department on May 1, 2023, saying they had not heard from her since April. Investigators went to Starren’s apartment and found blood inside. That evidence and video surveillance led them to identify Jorgenson as a suspect in her disappearance. St. Paul SWAT team members attempted to apprehend Jorgenson on June 26, 2023, but he started a fire inside and fought with the responding officers. Law enforcement eventually detained him and discovered additional blood evidence in his home.
On June 28, 2023, St. Paul Police executed a search warrant at a storage facility, where they found human remains. The remains were positively identified the next day as Starren’s.
According to Jorgenson’s probable cause statement, investigators spoke with a man who has a child with Starren, and he was “very concerned” for Starren’s safety. Starren reportedly told the man, who was identified as SS, that “Joe had once wrapped a rope around her neck and things got out of hand, and she ran from the apartment.” Other neighbors reportedly noticed marks and bruises on Starren’s body prior to her disappearance.
Surveillance footage last showed Starren running from her apartment on April 21, 2023, and Jorgenson following her. He reportedly “grabbed her, turned her around, and pushed her back into the apartment.” She was not seen alive after that. Video reportedly caught Jorgenson walking in and out of Starren’s apartment, and on one occasion, leaving with duffle bags.
The probable cause statement said Jorgenson made multiple purchases using Starren’s EBT card in the weeks following her disappearance. In June 2023, investigators searched Jorgenson’s browser history and found he Googled topics such as “jugular,” “how to clear cookies from Android phone,” “What do police do with a missing person’s report,” and “lime for soil.”
Lime can reportedly help reduce the smell of decomposition.
In May 2023, Jorgenson’s apartment manager reportedly received complaints from other tenants about a “foul smell” from Jorgenson’s apartment. The manager and a maintenance worker went to Jorgenson’s apartment to inspect it, but Jorgenson was “verbally hostile, and he physically denied access to a bedroom where the smell seemed to be coming from.”
Later that day, the manager and maintenance worker saw Jorgenson dragging bags out of his apartment and noticed that he looked like he was “carrying a dead body.”
Investigators reportedly found blood in Jorgenson’s closet where the smell came from, as well as signs of “recent maggot activity.”
Starren’s dismembered body was located in coolers and wrapped in plastic in the storage unit. The probable cause statement noted, “Great care had been taken to wrap the remains.”
Detectives discovered Xayavong’s body in 2023 while searching for Starren. Xayavong was last seen in September 2021. The Minnesota Star Tribune reports her hands were reportedly tied behind her back and her remains were placed in styrofoam boxes.
Jorgenson reportedly said in court Thursday, Jan. 2, that he killed Starren by choking her after she asked him to get out of her apartment. As for Xayavong, he reportedly hit her in the head with his knee while he was “very drunk.”
He admitted, “I did feel bad about it immediately afterwards, but my intent at that time was to kill her.”
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi reportedly said in a statement, “These heinous acts of cruelty took the lives of two young women and forever altered the future of their friends and family.”
St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry shared, “A community is safer today because a monster has been brought to justice. We can’t undo the past, but we can try and help secure the future.”
