Inset: A selfie of Liara Tsai (via Instagram). Background: Satellite image of intersection near location of car accident where Tsai’s body was found in the trunk of a woman’s car on June 22, 2024 in Olmsted County, Minnesota (via Google Maps).
In Minnesota, a woman has been arrested and charged in a bizarre incident in which, following a car accident, police located the body of a dead woman in her back seat wrapped in a blanket and futon-style mattress with dried blood sticking to the material.
The driver, Margot Lewis, 32, of North Liberty, Iowa, was charged with interference with a dead body on June 22 when the Olmstead County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were dispatched to the scene of the single-car accident and found Lewis being looked after by a passerby. The accident happened at Intersection 90 near Highway 42 by Eyota.
“In checking to see if anyone else was in the vehicle, a deceased individual, a 35-year-old female, was located in the back seat. The condition of the deceased was suspicious, and it was immediately apparent that the death was not a result of the motor vehicle accident,” police said in a statement on Facebook.
The deceased woman in the back seat was identified by police on Tuesday as Liara Tsai, 35, of Minneapolis.
Rochester, Minnesota, outlet KROC reported that tire tracks indicated to police that Lewis was moving at a high rate of speed before the accident and when they searched her vehicle, officers found the body of Tsai in “suspicious” condition with dried blood on the blanket and mattress she was wrapped in.
Tsai was positioned in the back seat so that her head was aimed toward the passenger seat and her feet toward the driver’s seat. Police said Tsai did not die from injuries sustained in the single-car accident.
They reported finding a large wound near the right side of Tsai’s neck.
KROC also reported Tuesday that the Minneapolis Police Department executed a search warrant of Tsai’s home and found a scene indicating violence.
The Star Tribune reported that Steven Seuling, who occasionally hired Tsai to work as a DJ for events he coordinated, said before her death, Tsai mentioned a friend was coming to stay with her at her house.
The friend was someone Tsai had known for six years, he said, and that the person was moving to Minneapolis from Iowa.
Tsai, Seuling told the Tribune, was a “community and trans activist” and she was “very, very much more than just a DJ.”
He said when she didn’t show up for a gig this past Sunday, he became worried because it was “very unlike her not to be there.”
As for Lewis, she was medically cleared after a review at a hospital and transported to the Adult Detention Center in Olmstead County. She reportedly made her first court appearance on Tuesday.
Police ask anyone with tips or information about Tsai’s death to call CrimeStoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477) or submit tips online via CrimeStoppersMN.org.
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