Content warning: This article describes intimate partner violence with graphic descriptions of murder. Please take care while reading.
A 41-year-old Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to murdering and dismembering the bodies of two women he dated in 2021 and 2023. The woman’s remains were discovered two years ago in a storage facility in the Minneapolis area.
According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, Joseph Steven Jorgenson‘s brutal crimes were uncovered when a woman Jorgenson had been dating, Manijeh “Mani” Starren’s family reported her missing in May 2023. According to Starren’s father, she was afraid of her boyfriend, Jorgenson, and security cameras showed Starren fleeing her apartment before Jorgenson caught up with her and pushed her back inside. Starren was never seen again.
Neighbors later reported a foul smell from Starren’s apartment. Management investigated the smell and found Jorgenson, and reportedly another man who said he had lost his sense of smell due to a brain injury, living at Starren’s place. Management told both men to figure out what was causing the smell and address it.
Jorgenson looked like he left Starren’s apartment “with a dead body,” witnesses said
Jorgenson was then spotted on the security camera leaving Starren’s apartment more than two dozen times with duffel bags and a suitcase, which he loaded into his truck. Witnesses said it looked like Jorgenson was carrying a dead body.
According to St. Paul police, investigators looking into Starren’s whereabouts found blood evidence inside her apartment, with signs of “recent maggot activity,” red stains, and other evidence someone had tried to clean up a mess. Police confronted Jorgenson at Starren’s residence, and he resisted arrest, fired a gun at officers, and lit a fire inside Starren’s room, causing extensive damage, before he was finally taken into custody.
Jorgenson’s phone pinged at a nearby storage facility, and they found Starren’s dismembered remains inside Jorgenson’s storage unit.
Fanta Xayavong’s 2021 disappearance
When Jorgenson was charged with Starren’s murder, he was also a person of interest in the 2021 disappearance of Fanta Xayavong, another woman he had dated. According to USA Today, Xayavong’s dismembered remains and some personal belongings were found inside the same storage unit.
When Jorgenson, 41, pleaded guilty to murdering Starren and Xayavong, he admitted to strangling Starren and killing Xayavong with a blow to the head with his knee. Jorgenson also reportedly texted a friend, telling him he “legit broke my hand on her skull last week.” Jorgenson told police he was intoxicated or under the influence of substances when both murders happened.
“I was very drunk at the time, and yes — in the heat of the moment — I was … yes [trying to kill her],” Jorgenson said, describing Xayavong’s murder. “I did feel bad about it immediately afterwards, but my intent at that time was to kill her.”
Jorgenson pleaded guilty to both crimes in a deal that will see him spend 40 years in prison for each crime, served concurrently. “These heinous acts of cruelty took the lives of two young women and forever altered the future of their friends and family,” Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said in a statement after Jorgenson entered his plea. “We extend our heartfelt sympathies to their surviving family and friends,” Choi added.
If you are experiencing domestic abuse, or if you believe someone you know is being abused, contact The National Domestic Violence Hotline. The hotline can be reached at 1-800-799-SAFE or spoken with online via the hotline’s website. Mobile phone owners can also text “START” to the number 88788