Manijeh “Mani” Starren was a mother of three children who had to put her nursing degree on hold when her youngest was born. She was softhearted and had a natural ability to care for others, her mother told a Ramsey County courtroom on Friday.

Fanta Xayavong was a devoted mother of two who was the “embodiment of love, kindness and selflessness,” her sister said.

Both women also had struggles and got mixed up with Joseph Steven Jorgenson, who in January admitted to intentionally murdering them and dismembering their bodies in a span of two years. Law enforcement found their remains at storage facilities in 2023: Starren in Woodbury and Xayavong in Coon Rapids.

Before Jorgenson, 41, of Maplewood, received his predetermined 40-year sentences for each murder — to be served at the same time — Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Treye Kettwick said Jorgenson carried out “the most heinous, evil offense I have ever been a part of.”Ramsey County District Judge Leonardo Castro echoed those words before handing down the sentence, saying Jorgenson “inexplicably committed the most gruesome and heinous crimes I have ever known.”

Castro said there are no answers to “why someone would do or could do what you did. … What you did cannot be explained. What you did was purely evil.”

Jorgenson’s sentence is the maximum penalty that Castro could hand down for the killings of Xayavong, 33, in Shoreview in 2021 and Starren, 33, in St. Paul in 2023.

Based on state sentencing guidelines, a midrange sentence would have been about 25½ years. The term is the statutory maximum for second-degree intentional murder and upward departures due to three aggravating factors in each case: that Jorgenson killed a romantic partner, that it happened in the victim’s home in each case, and that he dismembered the body in an attempt to hide what he had done.

“The more appropriate sentence for your crimes would be life without the possibility of parole,” Castro said. “However, having pled guilty to the most serious crimes to which you were charged, and having agreed to serve the most severe sentence allowed by law, my hands are tied and I cannot impose what you truly deserve.”

‘Don’t ever stop looking for me’

The cases came to light after Starren’s father reported her missing from St. Paul in 2023, after she last had contact with her family around April 21. Law enforcement learned during their investigation that Xayavong hadn’t been seen since 2021.

Starren’s mother, Ricki Starren, told the court Friday that a month before she went missing she called her from outside someone’s apartment — “an apartment I know now was Joe Jorgenson’s,” she said. “She sent me pictures and she said something that will stay with me forever: ‘If I ever go missing, don’t ever stop looking for me.’ ”

They didn’t, and neither did the police. When police were investigating Starren’s disappearance, investigators learned that apartment management found surveillance video of Starren and Jorgenson from a camera situated by her apartment on East Seventh Street near Johnson Parkway on April 21, 2023.

Video showed Starren fleeing her apartment and Jorgenson pushing her back inside, but police didn’t find video of her leaving again. The criminal complaint against him spelled out other evidence: Video of Jorgenson carrying bags from Starren’s apartment; a foul odor that people smelled coming from Jorgenson’s apartment; and Jorgenson’s cellphone location being tracked to the area of the Woodbury storage facility where Starren’s remains were found.

SWAT officers went to his Maplewood apartment with a search warrant on June 26, 2023, and he barricaded himself, set a fire and fought with officers.

Jorgenson told the court at his plea hearing that he used a long razor blade to cut up Starren’s body and took the body parts from the apartment separately because he was afraid he was going to get caught. He said he moved her body to his Maplewood apartment.

When Starren’s family went to her apartment to retrieve her belongings, they found signs of her fight, her mother said Friday in court. A broken TV screen, shattered microwave glass and a splintered door “spoke volumes about what she must have gone through,” she said.

“I know my daughter must have put up a heck of a fight. … The fear she must have felt in those moments is something I can’t stop thinking about,” her mother said. “And to know that she was not only killed, but also cut apart after her death was something I will never, ever get over.”

‘Two agonizing years of uncertainty’

While police were investigating Starren’s disappearance, law enforcement received a tip about Xayavong being missing. They learned she had last been heard from around July 2021 and was last seen with Jorgenson.

Jorgenson said at his plea hearing that Xayavong had been living with him in his townhome on Fernwood Street, off Ramsey County Road J, in Shoreview. He said he thought he killed her around Sept. 1, 2021, but he couldn’t be certain of the date because he “was very drunk at the time.”

Jorgenson said they got into an argument, he was “very angry” and he was beating up Xayavong, including throwing punches. “It ended with me dropping a knee on her head,” he said. He said he realized he had knocked her unconscious and she was no longer breathing.

He said he dismembered Xayavong’s body to make it easier for him to move her body. He said he placed her remains in a storage unit in Coon Rapids and then in another storage unit at the same facility.

Multiple people reported they had visited Jorgenson’s home between July and September 2021 and the house smelled “terrible,” the complaint said. When Jorgenson moved, a cleaning crew videotaped the property and saw the bedroom carpet, including carpet pad, had been removed and there was a large stain remaining on the wooden floorboards.

Law enforcement brought cadaver dogs to the residence during a search warrant, and the dogs “alerted” to areas in the bedroom and garage. Investigators determined that Jorgenson had started using a storage unit in Coon Rapids. On July 6, 2023, law enforcement carried out a search warrant and found human remains in the unit that were identified as Xayavong’s.

Xayavong’s hands were found bound behind her back and a storage tote in the unit contained multiple knives, including two believed to have been used to dismember her, the complaint said. Her cause of death was determined to be “multiple sharp and blunt force injuries” and was classified as a homicide.

Xayavong’s sister, Eangma “Lexi” Graziano, told the court Friday that their father emigrated from Laos after fighting in the Vietnam War and “sacrificed everything for us to have a chance at a better life and the American dream. He never imagined that one day he would have to bury his youngest daughter, taken from us in such a cruel and unimaginable way.”

When Xayavong’s remains were “finally found after two agonizing years of uncertainty,” she said, “we were able to hold a proper mourning ceremony as is our tradition. It was time to honor her life and reflect on the incredible person she was.”

‘Now there’s just silence’

Watching Starren’s children live without their mother is “one of the hardest things I have experienced,” her father, Marvin Starren, told the court.

“The ripple effects of this tragedy have touched every part of our lives,” he said. “I hope that justice for Mani can bring some measure of peace to her children, her brother and all of us who loved her.”

Brandon Lawson, a friend of the family, walked to the courtroom podium and told the judge he would “do my best” to read a victim impact statement from Starren’s 14-year-old daughter.

“My mom was more than just a mom,” Lawson said, his voice shaking. “She was my best friend, my light and my joy. … I miss when she would call me after school every single day, or our goofy FaceTime calls. Now there’s just silence when I get home from school.”

Starren’s daughter said her younger brothers didn’t get to know their mother “as much as I did, and that hurts my heart … it kills me inside.”

Jorgenson addressed the court and apologized to the families, “especially to the children of both Mani and Fanta. I am very, very sorry. That’s all.”

Judge Castro then addressed Jorgenson. He said a presentence investigation told a story of a “loving and supportive family … no childhood trauma affecting you in your adulthood.” He graduated from high school and college and was employed for 13 years at a major financial institution.

“Yet, notwithstanding all the privileges this world gave you … you brutally took from others what was not yours to take,” Castro said. “Not only did two lives suffer a horrific death at your hands, but you exponentially compounded your sins and crimes by making it almost impossible for their family, friends and loved ones to grieve and find peace in their most tragic loss.”