A Minnesota man pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree murder charges in the killings of two missing women whose dismembered bodies were discovered in St. Paul-area storage units in 2023, court documents show. Joseph Jorgenson, 41, appeared in a Ramsey County courtroom and remained expressionless while describing in detail the murder and dismemberment of Fanta Xayavong, 33, and Manijeh “Mani” Starren, 33, NBC affiliate KARE of Minneapolis reported. Jorgenson faces a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison for each of the killings, according to petitions he filed with the court. Those sentences will be served concurrently, the petitions show. Jorgenson is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 28. A police official previously described the horrific killings as extremely rare but said they should serve as a reminder that “monsters can be real.”
Both victims struggled with drug addiction and had previously been in relationships with Jorgenson, court documents show. Starren disappeared around the time that she was supposed to have gone to a drug treatment center, her father told authorities, according to a probable cause statement in the case. Starren’s father reported her missing on May 1, 2023, according to the document, and her dismembered remains were found on June 28 inside a storage unit in Woodbury, roughly 9 miles east of St. Paul. In court, Jorgenson said he strangled Starren before cutting up her body and moving her remains to the unit, KARE reported. After learning that Jorgenson had been charged in Starren’s death, a tipster contacted authorities and told them that Xayavong was also missing, according to search warrants in the case.
Xayavong, who struggled with addiction as well, had last been seen roughly two years before, in July 2021, the tipster said. Xayavong’s remains were found on July 6, 2023, in a storage unit in Coon Rapids, roughly 25 miles northwest of St. Paul. While Jorgenson was charged with Starren’s murder in June 2023, a complaint in Xayavong’s case shows he was not charged in her murder until Thursday. According to the document, which identifies the victim by her initials, Jorgenson admitted killing Xayavong by striking her head with his knee at his Twin Cities-area home. He then sought to dismember her body before placing her remains in the storage unit, the complaint shows.
