A Maplewood man admitted in court Thursday that he murdered two women in Ramsey County in a span of two years; he’d been in relationships with them, killed them and dismembered their bodies.

The cases came to light after the father of Manijeh “Mani” Starren, 33, reported her missing from St. Paul in 2023. Law enforcement learned during their investigation that Fanta Xayavong, 33, hadn’t been seen since 2021.

Law enforcement discovered their remains at storage facilities: Starren in Woodbury and Xayavong in Coon Rapids.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged Joseph Steven Jorgenson, 41, with Starren’s murder in St. Paul in 2023 and charged him Thursday with Xayavong’s murder in Shoreview. He was in court Thursday and pleaded guilty to intentional murder of both women.He is facing a 40-year sentence in each case, to be served at the same time.

“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. “We commend the diligent work of those in law enforcement as well as our staff who worked tirelessly to bring about charges leading to convictions supported by the available evidence and, ultimately, a measure of closure for each victim.”

The county attorney’s office said they have not received other homicide cases from law enforcement to review involving Jorgenson.

He said argument led to choking

Starren’s father reported her missing to police on May 1, 2023, after she last had contact with her family around April 21.

Video surveillance showed that Starren ran from her apartment on East Seventh Street near Johnson Parkway on April 21, 2023. Jorgenson ran after Starren, grabbed her, turned her around and pushed her back into her apartment, according to the criminal complaint. She wasn’t seen leaving again.

Jorgenson said in court Thursday that Starren asked him to leave her apartment “abruptly” and he “got very upset.” He said he hit Starren a couple of times, then put her in “a choke hold and choked her out” until she stopped breathing. He said he didn’t call for emergency help.

Jorgenson answered questions from his attorney, Prescott Weis, as part of the plea deal. Weis asked him: “When you were choking her out, were you trying to kill her?”

“Yes,” Jorgenson answered.

Jorgenson said 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.

SWAT officers went to Jorgenson’s apartment on Century Avenue, near Upper Afton Road, on June 26, 2023, to carry out a search warrant.

Jorgenson barricaded himself in a bedroom, started a fire, fought with officers and tried to disarm one, according to arson and other charges filed against him at the time. Those charges were dismissed Thursday as he pleaded guilty to murder.

Police found Starren’s remains in a Woodbury storage facility in late June 2023.

Another missing woman

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

Jorgenson said in court Thursday that Xayavong had been living with him in his townhome on Fernwood Street, off Ramsey County Road J W, 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’d knocked her unconscious and she was no longer breathing.

“I did feel bad about it immediately afterwards,” he said in court Thursday.

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 another storage unit at the same facility.

As officers later investigated, they discovered messages between Jorgenson and another person around the time of Xayavong’s disappearance that he’d broken his hand by hitting Xayavong in the back of the head, according to the newly filed criminal complaint.

Multiple people reported they’d 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 at the storage unit that were identified as Xayavong.

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 on Xayavong, the complaint said. Her cause of death was determined to be “multiple sharp and blunt force injuries” and was classified as a homicide.

Jorgenson is scheduled to be sentenced in February and remains in custody.

Based on state sentencing guidelines, a mid-range sentence would have been about 25½ years. The 40-year sentences are 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’d done.