GRAND RAPIDS, Minn. — A Minnesota man has been charged with murder after police say he beat, stabbed and decapitated the man he believed had raped his girlfriend.
Police arrested Joseph Christen Thoresen, 35, of Deer River, on Friday after the driver of the car he was in led officers on a high-speed chase. Thoresen was arrested after he ran into the woods, according to the criminal complaint obtained by KSTP. The driver of the car later told police that Thoresen forced him to flee the traffic stop at knife point.
Joseph Thoresen faces up to 40 years in prison after he allegedly decapitated a man accused of raping his girlfriend. (Itasca County Sheriff’s Office)
Officers initially had no idea what Thoresen had allegedly done — they pulled the car over for an obstructed license plate and a seat belt violation.
The driver, however, told the officers Thoresen had admitted to a grisly crime — killing the owner of the vehicle several days earlier by bludgeoning him with a baseball bat, stabbing him in the lungs and chopping off the man’s head before disposing of the body and head in the woods.
Police found the body of 20-year-old David Alexander Haiman Sunday morning.
In an interview with police, Thoresen’s girlfriend said she became upset after finding out that Haiman was coming over, and told Thoresen it was because Haiman had raped her. They allegedly confronted him, and Haiman agreed to be tied up so Thoresen’s girlfriend could beat him.
She punched him in the face multiple times, breaking his nose, according to the criminal complaint. Thoresen joined in the beating, punching Haiman while telling him that he shouldn’t have raped “my girl,” she said.
Thoresen’s said the three then left the house in Haiman’s car to “score some bud” and ended up meeting several friends to smoke marijuana and meth. While driving in the woods, Haiman began swearing at the couple, calling Thoresen’s girlfriend a “slut,” she said.
Stopping because of car trouble, Thoresen and Haiman got out and began arguing, Thoresen’s girlfriend said, at which point Thoresen hit him over the head with a baseball bat and began stabbing him in the torso. He then used a large knife to decapitate Haiman, throwing his head and body in the woods, according to the complaint.
Thoresen faces up to 40 years in prison on a charge of second-degree murder.
