Minnesota Man Pleads Guilty to Killing, Dismembering 2 Women Found in Different Storage Units

STREET. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota man pleaded guilty Thursday to killing and dismembering two women whose bodies were found in different storage units.

Under his plea agreement, Joseph Steven Jorgenson, 41, of Woodbury, is expected to be sentenced Feb. 28 to two 40-year terms for the deaths of Manijeh Starren in 2023 and Fanta Xayavong in 2021, the prosecutors said. prosecutors.

That’s the maximum under Minnesota law for each count of second-degree intentional murder. It will attend to them simultaneously. In Minnesota, defendants typically serve two-thirds of their sentences in prison and one-third on supervised release.

“These heinous acts of cruelty took the lives of two young women and forever altered the future of their friends and family,” Ramsey County Prosecutor John Choi said in a statement.

Authorities began investigating after receiving a missing person report from Starren’s father in April 2023. He told police she struggled with mental health and addiction issues and had not shown up as usual that day. Evidence from his apartment, surveillance video, and his financial and social media accounts led police to consider Jorgenson as the prime suspect.

Prosecutors said keys recovered from Jorgenson’s apartment led investigators to a storage facility in Woodbury where they located Starren’s dismembered remains in two separate coolers, as well as a large bag.

During that investigation, authorities discovered evidence of a second victim, Xayavong, with whom Jorgensen had a relationship in 2021. Investigators found her remains in a separate storage locker in Coon Rapids.