A Minnesota man pleaded guilty this week to killing and dismembering two women he had been dating.
According to KSTP, Joseph Jorgenson, 41, has admitted to the killings of Manijeh “Mani” Starren, aged 34, and Fanta Zayavong, aged 33. Jorgenson is set to be given two 40-year prison sentences that will run concurrently at his upcoming sentencing.
In June 2023, Jorgenson was formally accused of murdering Starren, who vanished in April, as covered by CrimeOnline. Starren’s remains were later discovered in a storage facility in Woodbury.
As the investigation into Starren’s disappearance unfolded, authorities discovered that another ex-partner of Jorgenson, Xayavong, had also gone missing. Xayavong was last seen with Jorgenson in 2021 but was not reported missing until May 2023. Her body was located in July 2023 in a storage unit in Coon Rapids.
At the hearing on Thursday, Jorgenson described how he murdered the women. He said that he and Starren got into an argument at her apartment, and he started hitting her. Then he choked her until she died. He admitted he wanted to kill her. Then, he said, he dismembered her and brought the body to his apartment in Maplewood before moving it to the storage unit.
As for Xayavong, he told similar story. They were living together in a townhome in Shoreview, he said, and in September 2021, they got into an argument and he beat her to death. He said he thought she was only unconscious but found out otherwise when he checked her pulse. But, he said, he had been trying to kill her.
“I felt bad about [the murder] immediately afterward, but it was my intent at the time to kill her,” he told the judge.
After the murder, he deposite Xayavong’s body in a different storage unit.
The plea deal included the dismissal of charges of arson, threats of violence, and disarming an officer when police executed a search warrant in connection with Starren’s disappearance.
Both women were mothers. Starren had three children and Xayavong two.
