An Iowa woman has been convicted of killing her ex-partner, whose body was discovered in the back seat of a car the woman was driving when she crashed it.
On Monday, a Minnesota jury found Margot Lewis, 33, guilty of two counts of second-degree murder in connection with the 2024 fatal stabbing of Liara Tsai, 35, a popular DJ in Minneapolis, MPR News reports.
The case came to light the morning of June 22, 2024, when Lewis crashed Tsai’s car on Interstate 90 in Eyota, Minn., according to the Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office.
Two Good Samaritans stopped to assist Lewis, who was sitting in a lawn chair on the road’s median, and discovered the body of a woman in the back seat, the criminal complaint obtained by KSTP states.
The body was “wrapped in bedding, a mattress, and covered with a tarp,” according to MPR News.
Lewis was arrested and initially charged with interference with a dead body.
Authorities, after tentatively identifying the victim through the car’s registration, went to Tsai’s residence, where they found “a scene indicating violence,” the sheriff’s office said.
Lewis pleaded not guilty and was held on $1 million bail.
During the trial, prosecutors told the jury that Lewis had stabbed Tsai in her Minneapolis apartment, where she bled to death, MPR News reports.
Tsai, a popular DJ and suicide hotline volunteer, had recently moved to Minneapolis from Iowa when she was killed, her friends told WCCO.
“She was just such a magnetic personality,” said Jaycee Cooper, who met Tsai at one of her performances, WCCO reports. “She was one of those people that made you feel welcome and seen.”
Lewis is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 18. The jury found aggravating factors in the case, meaning the judge could impose a sentence beyond standard guidelines, MPR News reports.
Her legal challenges are not over, as she is also facing a charge of concealing a dead body in Olmsted County.
