On the morning of June 22, 2024, two motorists pulled over on Interstate 90 near Eyota, Minnesota, to help a woman who had crashed a vehicle at what witnesses estimated was around 105 miles per hour. They found the driver sitting calmly in a lawn chair in the highway median. When they looked inside the vehicle, they found a body in the back seat wrapped in bedding, covered with a futon, and concealed beneath a tarp.
The driver was Margot Lewis. The person in the back seat was Liara Tsai. And what began as a roadside assistance stop became the discovery of a homicide.
Who Was Liara Tsai?
Before anything else, Liara Tsai deserves to be understood as a person.
She was 35 years old, a DJ and electronic music producer who had recently moved from Iowa City to Minneapolis in May 2024. She was a transgender community advocate, a volunteer for a suicide hotline, and a former volunteer with The Trevor Project. In the Minneapolis electronic music scene, she was well known and described by friends as charismatic, compassionate, and deeply influential. She had built a community around her.
She had been in her new city for about a month when she was killed.
What Investigators Found
Authorities determined that Lewis had flown from Boston to Minneapolis on June 21, 2024, and that surveillance footage captured Tsai picking her up at the airport. The two were former romantic partners.
Prosecutors later argued that Lewis stabbed Tsai inside Tsai’s Minneapolis apartment while Tsai was in bed during the early morning hours of June 22. Investigators found blood-soaked bedding, signs of a violent struggle, and a knife missing from a kitchen knife block.
Surveillance footage showed Tsai’s vehicle leaving the apartment building at approximately 4:37 a.m., with Lewis allegedly driving and Tsai’s dog visible in the car.
Roughly two and a half hours later, the vehicle crashed on I-90. Lewis was found at the scene. Tsai’s body was found in the back seat.
The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. The cause: multiple sharp-force injuries, including a major wound to the neck involving the carotid artery.
Lewis’s Behavior After Arrest
Investigators reported unusual behavior from Lewis following her arrest. She allegedly adopted what was described as a “vow of silence,” communicating primarily through sign language and generally refusing to speak with law enforcement. Authorities described her as uncooperative during portions of the investigation.
No confession was reported in available coverage. No detailed motive was publicly established in court proceedings.
Trial and Conviction
In September 2025, a Hennepin County jury convicted Margot Lewis on two counts of second-degree murder: second-degree intentional murder and second-degree felony murder. The jury also found aggravating factors, giving the judge authority to impose a sentence above standard sentencing guidelines.
In November 2025, Lewis was sentenced to 40 years in prison, the maximum reported in available coverage. The court also ordered restitution to Tsai’s family.
Lewis also faced a separate charge of interference with and concealment of a dead body, which proceeded independently from the murder prosecution.
A Community in Grief
Tsai’s death reverberated well beyond the courtroom. Friends and community members organized memorial gatherings in Minneapolis, Iowa City, and Madison. Musicians performed tribute sets using her music. Organizations highlighted her contributions as a DJ, mentor, advocate, and volunteer.
She had spent years giving to her community through her music, through crisis line work, through mentorship. She moved to Minneapolis to build a new chapter. She had been there for one month.
Conclusion
The Margot Lewis case drew wide attention because of the circumstances of its discovery: the crash, the lawn chair, the body concealed in the back seat but the story at its center is about a woman named Liara Tsai who deserved to be alive.
A jury found Lewis guilty. A judge sentenced her to 40 years. The legal system provided what it could offer.
What it cannot provide is that Tsai’s community lost a DJ, an advocate, a friend, and a person who spent her life showing up for others.
NOTE: All details are based on court records, law-enforcement statements, and verified reporting from People magazine, PopCulture.com, and Yahoo News. The conviction and 40-year sentence were confirmed in September and November 2025 respectively.
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