Murder Charges Filed After Trans Advocate Found Dead In Car's Backseat

An Iowa woman was charged with murder on Wednesday after her ex, a trans advocate and DJ, was discovered dead in the back seat of her car with an apparent stab wound in her neck, following a crash.

Margot G. Lewis, 32, was charged with two counts of second-degree murder, intentional and unintentional, in connection to the death of Liara Tsai, 35, according to a probable cause statement obtained by HuffPost.

Sheriff’s deputies arrived to the scene of a one-car crash in Olmsted County, Minnesota, on June 22, per the document. They found Lewis, the driver of the crashed vehicle, sitting on a lawn chair a bystander had given her, according to the probable cause. The responding deputies found Tsai’s corpse in the back seat of the car, wrapped in bloody bedding and a futon and covered with a tarp.

Further examination of the body found gaping puncture wounds in Tsai’s neck. It was apparent to deputies that Tsai’s death “was not a result of the traffic crash,” per the probable cause statement.

Lewis was taken to a local hospital for medical treatment following the crash, according to the statement. She was speeding at about 105 miles per hour when she crashed into highway guard rails, according to a reconstruction by the Minnesota State Patrol cited in the statement.

The responding deputies learned that the vehicle belonged to Tsai, and a search of the car found medical documents that indicated her address. Deputies also located a dog who was wandering the crash scene and learned from his microchip that he belonged to Tsai.

Deputies who executed a search of Tsai’s studio apartment in Minneapolis discovered the victim’s bed saturated in blood and a bloody plastic and metal object nearby, according to the affidavit. More blood