Dana Thiede

KARE-TV, Minneapolis-St. Paul

GRAND RAPIDS, Minn. - Prosecutors in northern Minnesota have filed murder charges against a man they say decapitated the person who he thought raped his girlfriend.

Joseph Thoresen of Grand Rapids is charged with second degree murder in the beating, stabbing and decapitation death of 20-year-old David Haiman of Hibbing whose head and torso was recovered from a wooded area of Itasca County near Ball Club.

Investigators say the murder case came to light after police attempted to pull over a speeding vehicle in Deer River just before midnight on June 24. The driver of the car instead sped off, leading officers on a chase that reached speeds of more than 90 miles per hour.

The chase ended when the driver lost control and slid into a ditch. The driver ran into the woods and was later arrested at a nearby home. The passenger, identified as 35-year-old Joseph Thoresen, was ordered to the ground at gunpoint, taken into custody, and then released.

The driver of the vehicle, identified in a criminal complaint as TMC, told detectives that Thoresen told him that he had killed the owner of the vehicle several days earlier by hitting him over the head with a baseball bat and then stabbing him in the lungs with a black machete.

TMC says Thoresen told him he cut off Haiman's head, put it in a bag, then threw it in the woods. Haiman's torso was also dragged into the woods.

Checks of the victim's cell phone records showed no activity since June 21.

Investigators questioned Thoresen's girlfriend, who told them that Haiman had raped her. She said Haiman showed up at her and Thoresen's apartment on June 21, that she confronted and punched him over the rape, and that he agreed to be tied up so she could beat him up.

The girlfriend told detectives she broke Haiman's nose and kicked him in the gut before untying him. At that point Thoresen took over, punching Haiman and telling him he should not have raped "my girl."

The girlfriend says the three then got into Haiman's car and drove to Deer River, smoking both marijuana and methamphetamine. She said the victim repeatedly called them worthless pieces of sh**, and her a slut.

Eventually Thoresen pulled the vehicle over under the guise of having car trouble and lifted the hood. When Haiman got out and walked up to him Thoresen reportedly hit Haiman in the head with a bat and stabbed him repeatedly with the machete. She told authorities she tried to stop him, but that Thoresen took a large knife from the Haiman's belt loop and cut off his head.

On Wednesday a judge set bail for Joseph Thoresen at $2 million without conditions, or $1 million with conditions. He faces a possible 40 years in prison.