A man from Minnesota pleaded guilty on Thursday to second-degree murder charges in the deaths of two missing women whose dismembered bodies were found in storage units in the St. Paul area in 2023, according to court documents. Joseph Jorgenson, 41, appeared in a Ramsey County courtroom and remained expressionless as he provided detailed descriptions of the murders and dismemberments of Fanta Xayavong, 33, and Manijeh “Mani” Starren, 33, as reported by NBC affiliate KARE of Minneapolis. Jorgenson faces a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison for each of the murders, to be served concurrently, based on petitions filed with the court. Jorgenson is set to be sentenced on February 28.
A law enforcement official previously characterized the brutal murders as highly uncommon but cautioned that they are a stark reminder that “monsters can be real.” Both victims had struggled with drug addiction and had been involved with Jorgenson in past relationships, according to court documents. Starren vanished around the time she was supposed to check into a drug treatment facility, her father informed authorities, as detailed in a probable cause statement. Starren’s father reported her disappearance on May 1, 2023, and her dismembered remains were discovered on June 28 in a storage unit in Woodbury, approximately 9 miles east of St. Paul.
During the court proceedings, Jorgenson admitted to strangling Starren before dismembering her body and moving her remains to the storage unit, KARE reported. Following the charges brought against Jorgenson for Starren’s murder in June 2023, a tipster came forward and informed authorities that Xayavong was also missing, as outlined in search warrants related to the case. Xayavong, who also struggled with addiction, had been last seen about two years earlier, in July 2021, according to the tipster. Xayavong’s remains were discovered 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 revealed that he was not charged in her murder until Thursday. The complaint, which identifies the victim by her initials, details that Jorgenson confessed to killing Xayavong by striking her head with his knee at his residence in the Twin Cities area. He then attempted to dismember her body before placing her remains in the storage unit, according to the complaint.
