Joseph Jorgenson: Victims, Arrest, and Sentencing

Joseph Jorgenson is a Maplewood, Minnesota man who murdered and dismembered two of his former girlfriends, Manijeh “Mani” Starren and Fanta Xayavong, and hid their remains in separate storage units in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area. In January 2025 he pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree intentional murder, and on February 28, 2025, Ramsey County District Court Judge Leonardo Castro sentenced him to 40 years in prison, the statutory maximum for that offense under Minnesota law.¹

The Two Women He Killed

Mani Starren was 34 and a mother of three. She worked as a certified nursing assistant and in a group home, and her family described caregiving as her calling.² Fanta Xayavong was 33 and lived in Lakeville, Minnesota. She had children of her own and had been in a relationship with Jorgenson in 2021. Police said the relationship was abusive, and she was last seen with him that July.³

The Killings

Xayavong died first. Jorgenson later admitted in court that he killed her by striking her head with his knee at his home, then dismembered her body and placed the remains in a storage unit in Coon Rapids.⁴ Her disappearance would not reach law enforcement for nearly two years.

Jorgenson had a documented history of violence toward Starren. According to the criminal complaint, a neighbor had seen her with a black eye and red marks on her neck, and she told a friend that Jorgenson had once wrapped a rope around her neck. In an April 2023 text, he told her she owed him for calling the police on him twice and referenced “punishable by hanging.”⁵ On April 21, 2023, surveillance cameras at her apartment building recorded Starren running from Jorgenson before he caught her and pushed her back inside.⁶ She was never seen leaving. Jorgenson later admitted to strangling her, dismembered her body, and was captured on surveillance footage carrying two duffel bags and a suitcase out of her apartment.⁷

How He Was Caught

Starren’s father reported her missing on May 1, 2023, after she failed to arrive at a drug treatment center. Surveillance footage from her apartment complex quickly pointed investigators toward Jorgenson. On May 25, 2023, officers went to his Maplewood apartment to conduct a search. He barricaded himself in a bedroom and started a fire. Police arrested him after a physical altercation and found another woman inside with bruises, scratches, and redness on her neck; she told officers Jorgenson had strangled her.⁵

Cell phone records led investigators to a storage facility in Woodbury, where on June 28, 2023, they found Starren’s dismembered remains inside coolers and a large bag. Jorgenson was charged with second-degree murder in her death, with bail set at $5 million.⁷

The same day Jorgenson was arrested, a caller contacted the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s human trafficking tipline to report that Fanta Xayavong had been in an abusive relationship with him and had not been heard from.⁸ St. Paul police obtained a search warrant for a storage facility in Coon Rapids and, on July 6, 2023, found her dismembered remains inside. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office identified her the next day and ruled the death a homicide.⁹

Why the Charge Was Second-Degree Murder

Jorgenson was not formally charged in Xayavong’s death until January 2, 2025. That same day, he pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree intentional murder as part of a plea agreement calling for concurrent 40-year sentences.¹⁰ In exchange, prosecutors dismissed a separate case charging him with arson, threats of violence, and disarming an officer over his behavior during the attempted apartment search.⁷

Under Minnesota law, second-degree intentional murder differs from first-degree murder in that it lacks premeditation, and it carries a maximum of 40 years rather than life. Lead prosecutor Treye Kettwick, an assistant Ramsey County attorney, said the autopsy on Starren could not determine a specific cause of death, which would have made it difficult to prove intent to a jury. The Xayavong case had its own difficulties because of how much time had passed. Jorgenson had no prior felony record, and if a trial had produced only an unintentional-murder conviction, he could have faced roughly 12.5 years under state sentencing guidelines. Kettwick called the plea the “best option to ensure convictions of intentional murder for both homicides.”¹¹

The Sentence

Jorgenson, then 41, was sentenced on February 28, 2025, in Ramsey County District Court. He received 40 years, with the two counts running concurrently, and was credited with 619 days already served.¹² With good behavior, he is expected to serve about 26 and a half years in prison, with the remainder on supervised release.⁷

Family members addressed the court at length. Starren’s 14-year-old daughter Colbie sent a letter read aloud in the courtroom: “My mom was more than just a mom. Now there’s this silence when I get home from school. I miss her hugs, her goofy laugh. She deserved so much more than what happened to her.” Starren’s mother, Ricki, said knowing her daughter “was not only killed but also cut apart after her death is something I will never, ever get over.”⁷ Xayavong’s sister Eangma Graziano told the court Jorgenson “didn’t just take Fanta’s life, he destroyed the lives of her children, her family and everyone who loved her,” calling him “selfish, heartless and irredeemable” and “only sorry he got caught.”¹³

Jorgenson spoke briefly. “I’d just like to say that I truly am sorry. Especially to the family and especially to the children of both Mani and Fanta, I am very, very sorry.”¹²

Judge Castro told Jorgenson, “You inexplicably committed the most gruesome and heinous of crimes I have ever known,” and said the appropriate sentence would be life without parole. Bound by the plea agreement, he added, “My hands are tied, and I cannot impose what you truly deserve.”¹² Kettwick called the case “the most heinous, evil offense I’ve ever been a part of” in a career spanning more than 16 years.¹³

1
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Statutes Section 609.19
2
Helgeson Funeral Home. Manijeh Starren Obituary
3
KSTP. St. Paul Police Find Body of Second Missing Woman in Storage Unit
4
NBC News. Minnesota Man Admits He Dismembered 2 Missing Women, Put Remains in Storage Units
5
Fox News. Joseph Jorgenson Criminal Complaint
6
NBC Bay Area. Police Link Man to Two Women Whose Bodies Were Found in Different Minnesota Storage Units
7
CBS News Minnesota. Joseph Jorgenson Murder Dismemberment Sentencing
8
Oxygen. Joseph Jorgenson Person of Interest in Fanta Xayavong’s Death
9
City of St. Paul. Search Warrant Leads to Discovery of Second Missing Woman
10
KSTP. Maplewood Man Pleads Guilty to Murders of 2 Women Who Were Reported Missing
11
Twin Cities Pioneer Press. St. Paul Missing Women Murder Investigation
12
FOX 9. Joseph Jorgenson Murder Victims Bodies Storage Units Sentenced
13
Star Tribune. Maplewood Man Sentenced to 40 Years for Killing, Dismemberment of Two Women