The woman whose body was found in the back of a car wrapped in a mattress has been named, and the driver has been charged.
According to a criminal charge seen by PEOPLE, Margot Lewis, 32, crashed her car on June 22 in Olmsted County, Minnesota. The complaint says that people who saw Lewis and stopped to help told the officers that they thought someone inside the car was hurt or dead.
Police say that Lewis’ car had a person “wrapped in a bed sheet, a blanket, a futon-style mattress, and a tarp.” The report said that the body felt cold when touched. Deputies say that blood was also on the bedsheet.
The deputy sheriff’s office in Olmsted County says the person who was found dead in the car was Liara Tsai, 35, from Minneapolis. The lawsuit says she had died before the car accident and was found with a big cut around her carotid artery.
The lawsuit didn’t say how Tsai died or how she was related to Lewis.
After that, Lewis was charged with meddling with a dead body. According to court and jail records, he is currently being held in Olmsted County. The price of her bail was $1 million. It’s not clear if she has a lawyer named or if she has entered a plea.
KTTC was told by Tsai’s sisters that she had been a great DJ and had just come to Minnesota from Iowa City at the beginning of 2024.
The person who hired Tsai to work events, Steven Seuling, told the Star Tribune that she was also a “community and trans activist.”
