A Minnesota man pleaded guilty this week to killing and dismembering two women he had been dating.
Joseph Jorgenson, 41, pleaded guilty to the murders of 34-year-old Manijeh “Mani” Starren and 33-year-old Fanta Zayavong, KSTP reported. He is expected to be sentenced to two 40-year-prison terms, served concurrently, at his sentencing next month.
Jorgenson was charged in June 2023 with the murder of Starren, who disappeared in April, as CrimeOnline reported. Her body was eventually found in a storage unit in Woodbury,
While investigating Starren’s disappearance, police learned that another former partner of Jorgenson had also disappeared — Xayavong, who was last seen with Jorgenson in 2021 but not reported missing until May 2023. Her body was found 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.
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[Featured image: Joseph Jorgenson/police handout]
