Murder suspect connected to second dismembered body found in storage unit

A “monster” charged with killing and dismembering his girlfriend after the woman’s body was found in a Minnesota storage unit has been connected to a second body discovered in a separate storage unit, cops said.

Joseph Jorgenson, 40, was named a “person of interest” after the remains of 33-year-old Fanta Xayavong were discovered inside a storage unit connected to the suspect, according to St. Paul police

“It’s nothing short of horrific,” St. Paul police Sgt. Mike Ernster said upon discovering the second victim.

Xayavong had been missing for two years until her remains were found in the Minneapolis suburb.

Her body was discovered shortly after Jorgenson had been charged with killing mom-of-three Manijeh “Mani” Starren, 33, inside of her St. Paul apartment in April. Cops were still trying to determine how Xayavong had died.

Police Chief Axel Henry said that “cases like this are extremely rare, but they are reminders to all of us that monsters can be real.”

Jorgenson was busted after video footage recovered by police allegedly shows Starren attempting to flee her apartment on April 21 around 6 p.m.

Jorgenson pursued her, grabbed her and forced her back into the apartment building. She was never seen alive again, police said.

“Jorgenson is the only one that comes out of that unit, and Mani is never seen again,” Ernster told reporters at a press conference on Friday. “He did not report her missing to police. Instead, he just went on with his life without saying anything to anyone.”

Starren’s family filed a missing persons report on May 1 after not hearing from her for days, police said. They told police she was “afraid” of her boyfriend and that she had seemed paranoid and scared the last time they spoke with her.

She told her son’s father that Jorgenson had once wrapped a rope around her neck and that she fled her apartment after “things got out of hand,” according to the affidavit. Neighbors reported seeing her with a black eye and red marks on her throat.

When a neighbor offered to call the police, Starren told her that “it will just make things worse.”

Starren had struggled with drug addiction and mental health issues, family members said.

Investigators focused their investigation on Jorgenson.

On May 25, police executed a search warrant on the apartment and found a cracked TV screen and large blood stains on the living room floor, couch and kitchen. Investigators determined that someone had tried to clean up the blood, which was confirmed to be Starren’s.

At Jorgenson’s apartment in nearby Maplewood, neighbors complained of a “foul smell” resembling a dead animal beginning on May 16, which the manager told police “impacted the whole building.”

When the building manager and maintenance employee tried to enter the apartment to inspect the stench, Jorgenson “was verbally hostile” and refused to let them enter a bedroom where the smell appeared to be coming from, according to the affidavit.

Shortly after the altercation, Jorgenson was seen by the manager and maintenance employee carrying large black duffle bags out of the apartment,

They commented to each other that it looked like Jorgenson was “carrying a dead body,” the affidavit says.