Trans DJ Liara Tsai Found Murdered, Wrapped in Bloody Sheets
Minnesota police discovered the body of the 35-year-old in the back of a car. Her ex, Margot Lewis, has been charged with murder.
On June 22, at around 7 a.m., deputies from the Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of a single-vehicle crash along Interstate 90 in Eyota, Minnesota.
When they arrived on the scene, they found the driver, 32-year-old Margot Lewis, seated on a lawn chair in the median of the interstate, with a small passenger sedan crashed into a bridge pillar.
A subsequent investigation determined that the car had been traveling 105 miles per hour at the time of the crash.
The deputies soon discovered a body, wrapped in blood-soaked sheets, in the car’s backseat, reports CBS affiliate KIMT.
The victim was identified Liara Tsai, a 35-year-old transgender woman who volunteered for the Trevor Project. Tsai also maintained a Soundcloud account, where she promoted her work as a DJ specializing in EDM. She had recently moved from Iowa City to Minneapolis in search of better career opportunities.
Sheriff’s deputies reported finding a “gaping puncture wound” on the victim’s neck, which they said made it clear that Tsai didn’t die as a result of the accident.
Deputies learned that the victim and suspect had been former romantic partners. Lewis, who had been scheduled to stay with Tsai at her Minneapolis apartment, was taken into custody and booked on a felony charge of concealment of a body.
According to NBC affiliate KTTC, forensic specialists collected a tarp, a bloody towel, and a knife from the scene. The Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office recovered several personal documents belonging to Tsai, including a name change document, birth certificate, social security cards, and a passport.
Police later investigated Tsai’s Minneapolis residence, where they discovered a “violent scene.”
According to KIMT, Tsai’s bed and bedding were “saturated with blood,” and officers located a “bloody plastic and metal object.” They noted that a butcher block in the kitchen was missing a single steak knife which wasn’t in the apartment.
Initial autopsy findings revealed that Tsai died of multiple “sharp force injuries to her neck and hands.” A full report has yet to be released.
Lewis has since been charged with two counts of second-degree murder. She will be prosecuted on those counts in Hennepin County, in addition to the body concealment charge in Olmsted County. She is currently being held on a $1 million bond.
Lewis is scheduled to appear in court in Olmsted County on July 5. No court date has been set for when she will face the murder charges in Hennepin County.
According to charging documents, Tsai’s former spouse claimed that the pair had a “sordid and emotionally challenging relationship” prior to their breakup.
Friends of Tsai remembered her as a loving, kind, creative spirit.
“I cannot express enough her capacity for love,” Olivia Anderson, a friend and former partner of Tsai’s, told CBS News. “She was just always completely herself, and she wanted to inspire everyone around her to always be their most true and authentic selves.”
“She was just such a magnetic personality,” Jaycee Cooper, another friend, told the news outlet. “She was one of those people that made you feel welcome and seen…. More than anything, she was really a connector, and a support.”
“Liara’s killing leaves a void in her community that will never be filled,” Tori Cooper, Director of Community Engagement for HRC’s Transgender Justice Initiative, wrote in a statement. “Her activism and work as an artist and DJ touched many, and our hearts are with those who called her a friend or chosen family.”
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