uh good afternoon my name is Sergeant
oh wait
good afternoon my name is Sergeant Mike
earnster
that's spelled
e-r-n-s-t-e-r I'm the public information
officer for the Saint Paul police
department
unfortunately I'm here today to talk
about
the facts of a tragic ending to a
missing person's case that recently
ended
our investigators worked hard
to find her
but unfortunately the end was the worst
possible outcome
this investigation began on May 1st
when the family of
menajah Starin
reported her missing
manager also is referred to as Manny
by her friends and family
the family had last spoken to her in
April mid-april
of this year
and they were concerned for her they're
concerned that she has not reached back
out to them and they were unable to
contact her
our investigators opened a case
and began looking for her
that search began where she was last
known to reside which is her apartment
on the 1400 block of
East 7th Street in Saint Paul
investigators went there and spoke to
management of the building
and eventually executed a search warrant
on her apartment
that search warrant
located blood evidence
um
and also any and other evidence video
surveillance evidence in relation to
activity around her apartment
at this point investigators believed a
crime had occurred
and they had identified a person of
interest
that person of interest Joseph Jorgensen
investigators start to look into his
connection to Starin
and possibly try to find him and try to
learn what he knew about her
he was the last known person to be in
her apartment on 7th Street
prior after her disappearance
the the one piece about Jorgensen is
that
he did not report her missing to police
instead he just went on with his life
without saying anything to anyone
our investigators focused on an
apartment earlier this week on Monday
in relation to a search warrant
in Maplewood at an address on Century
Avenue our SWAT team executed the search
warrant on behalf of our investigators
they encountered Jorgensen in the
apartment where he started a fire
fought with officers
and attempted to disarm them two
officers were injured in this incident
Jorgensen was arrested on unrelated
charges
and booked into the Ramsey County Jail
a search of the apartment did reveal
additional blood evidence that we
believe is related to this case
as the investigation went on a
connection
was made to a storage unit in Woodbury
Minnesota
it was located on the 800 block of Weir
Drive
on Wednesday
June 28th
investigators executed a warrant at this
at this storage unit
and did discover human remains inside
the unit
our forensic Services Unit as well as
the Ramsey County Medical Examiner did
respond
to the storage unit and they processed
it as if it was a crime scene
the remains in question were brought to
the Ramsey County medical examiner's
office for further examination
on Thursday June 29th yesterday
the Ramsey County Medical Examiner did
identify those remains as Manny starrin
of Saint Paul
they also ruled that the cause of her
death was homicide
Jorgensen Still Remains in the Ramsey
County Jail
and the investigators forwarded their
investigation to the Ramsey County
Attorney's Office for review
this afternoon the Ramsey County
Attorney's Office have charged
Joseph Jorgensen with the murder of
Manny starrin
a charge of second-degree murder will be
added to his charges in the jail
we cannot this is well I'll say that
this is the 18th homicide in St Paul
this year
but we also cannot
um fathom the pain
that the family is feeling at this point
but we do hope
that this investigation's result will
bring them some level of Solace
keeping in mind there's a lot of
information out there I'll take
questions if you can and uh
right now today second degree murder
there are other related charges into
disarming a police officer arson some of
these cases are being handled by
Maplewood police since it occurred in
Maplewood so I'm not at total Liberty to
discuss them but they did occur during
the execution of this warrant so
we believe there was a relationship
between the two that could possibly be
like boyfriend girlfriend type
relationship
yes
contusions Some Cuts uh to their arms is
basically arm injuries that were
sustained during the struggle with
Jorgensen while he was being taken into
custody
I don't know as far as I don't have the
information as I stand here whether
they're a result of what he was doing in
his unit or his interaction with the
officers
like you we talked about some video
um evidence is that within is that
inside development it is it's uh so if
the charging document issued by the
Ramsey County Attorney's Office will
document that better but it does reveal
um evidence of Manny coming and going
from her apartment and then at a certain
point we do not see Manny again
so we see her go into her apartment she
does not come out
Jorgensen is the only one that comes out
of the unit and Manny has never seen
again until we find her in Woodbury
the cameras are the are the
responsibility or the ownership is the
apartment complex
all right
no there's I don't have much information
on as far as his history but I do not
believe there is anything of substance
that would lead us to believe he could
be responsible for something this
heinous
yeah that is correct um investigators
during this investigation uh did
um hear of a name of another female that
is missing I do have that name if you
want it
um
we do not know if it is a Saint Paul
missing case but I can tell you that we
don't wait for somebody to tell us where
it occurred or how it occurred we did
open our own missing person case in
relation to her missing she does have a
connection with Jorgensen and uh to put
a bluntly we're concern for her safety
also and we would uh our investigators
would be looking to find her
and I hopefully we hope we find her safe
but right now we have reached out to her
family already they have not heard from
her in approximately two years
I can um
I do have more also here
as far as
bad as a missing person case it's open
and active and our investigators are
will do everything they can to move
forward on that with the concern
100 yes
investigators have found a connection to
Jorgensen and her
sorry guys
still looking
listen do you have that
I do have it I can share with you after
um
yeah thank you