HPP: A 41-year-old man who killed and dismembered two of his girlfriends, both of whom vanished during a two-year period, and left their remains in a storage unit is likely to serve the remainder of his life in prison.
According to court documents, Joseph Jorgenson entered a guilty plea to two counts of second-degree murder in connection with the murders of Fanta Xayavong and Manijeh “Mani” Starren.
According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, Jorgenson will get concurrent sentences of 40 years in jail on each offense. In February, he will be formally sentenced.
On May 1, 2023, Starren’s family stated that they had not heard from her since April and filed a missing person’s report to the St. Paul Police Department. Blood was discovered in Starren’s residence by investigators. They named Jorgenson as a suspect in her disappearance based on that evidence and video monitoring.
On June 26, 2023, St. Paul SWAT team members tried to arrest Jorgenson, but he struggled with the responding officers and set fire to the building. He was eventually taken into custody by the police, who also found more blood evidence in his house.
When St. Paul Police carried out a search warrant at a storage facility on June 28, 2023, they discovered human remains. The following day, the remains were positively recognized as belonging to Starren.
Jorgenson’s probable cause statement states that a guy who has a kid with Starren told investigators that he was “very concerned” about Starren’s safety.
The individual, who was known as SS, was allegedly informed by Starren that “Joe had once wrapped a rope around her neck and things got out of hand, and she ran from the apartment.” Before Starren vanished, several neighbors allegedly observed bruises and scratches on her body.
On April 21, 2023, surveillance footage last captured Starren fleeing her apartment with Jorgenson in pursuit. He was said to have “grabbed her, turned her around, and pushed her back into the apartment.” After that, she was never seen alive again.
According to reports, Jorgenson was seen on camera entering and exiting Starren’s flat, and once he was seen taking duffel bags with him.
Jorgenson used Starren’s EBT card to make several purchases in the weeks after her disappearance, according to the probable cause statement. When authorities looked into Jorgenson’s browser history in June 2023, they discovered that he had Googled terms like “jugular,” “how to clear cookies from Android phone,” “what do police do with a missing person’s report,” and “lime for soil.”
According to some reports, lime helps lessen the odor of decomposition.
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Other residents reportedly complained to Jorgenson’s apartment management in May 2023 about a “foul smell” coming from the apartment. When Jorgenson’s flat was inspected by the manager and a maintenance worker, he was “verbally hostile, and he physically denied access to a bedroom where the smell seemed to be coming from.”
Later that day, Jorgenson was seen lugging suitcases out of his flat by the management and a maintenance worker, who thought he appeared to be “carrying a dead body.”
The source of the odor, Jorgenson’s closet, was reported to contain blood and evidence of “recent maggot activity.”
In the storage container, Starren’s dismembered body was found wrapped in plastic and kept in refrigeration. “Excellent care had been taken to wrap the remains,” according to the probable cause statement.
When detectives were looking for Starren in 2023, they came across Xayavong’s body. The last time we saw Xayavong was in September 2021. Her remains were put in styrofoam crates and her hands were apparently tied behind her back.
In court on Thursday, January 2, Jorgenson allegedly said that when Starren requested him to leave her apartment, he killed her by strangulation. According to reports, Xayavong was “very drunk” when he struck her in the head with his knee.
He said, “I did feel bad about it immediately afterwards, but my intent at that time was to kill her.”
According to a statement released by Ramsey County Attorney John Choi, “These heinous acts of cruelty took the lives of two young women and forever altered the future of their friends and family.”
“A community is safer today because a monster has been brought to justice,” said Axel Henry, chief of police in St. Paul. Although we cannot change the past, we can work to ensure the future.