Minnesota man pleads guilty to killing and dismembering 2 women found in different storage units

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

Under his plea deal, 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, prosecutors said.

That’s the maximum under Minnesota law for each count of intentional second-degree murder. He’ll serve them concurrently. 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 Attorney John Choi said in a statement.

Authorities began investigating after getting a missing person report from Starren’s father in April 2023. He told police that she struggled with mental health and addiction challenges and had not checked in as usual that day. Evidence from her apartment, surveillance video, and her social media and financial accounts led police to regard Jorgenson as the primary 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 uncovered 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.