A 32-year-old woman has been arrested in Minnesota after she was found at the scene of a single-car accident and the body of a dead woman wrapped in a mattress was found in the back seat.
Authorities responded to the accident in the eastbound lane of Interstate 90 near the Highway 42 exit in Olmsted County — about 100 miles southeast of Minneapolis — at 7 a.m. Saturday, the Olmsted County Sheriff's Office said in a release Monday.
The driver, Margot Lewis, of North Liberty, Iowa, was found out of the vehicle being tended to by a passerby.
“In checking to see if anyone else was in the vehicle, a deceased individual, a 35-year-old female, was located in the back seat,” the sheriff’s office said.
The woman’s condition was “suspicious,” and “it was immediately apparent that the death was not a result of the motor vehicle accident” the sheriff’s office said.
The woman was identified Tuesday as Liara Tsai, 35, of Minneapolis.
Lewis was taken to a hospital where she was medically cleared, then taken to the Adult Detention Center and arrest on suspicion of interference with a dead body.
A probable cause affidavit said a deputy found the back seats of Lewis' vehicle folded down and the body wrapped in a bedsheet, a blanket, a futon-style mattress and a tarp. The body was cold, and dried blood appeared to be soaked in the bedsheet.
There was also a large wound on the right side of her neck. Based on preliminary information, an autopsy found that the woman’s injuries "were not caused by, and preceded, the car crash," the affidavit said.
The investigation continues.
Lewis appeared Tuesday morning and again in the afternoon in Olmsted County Court, where she appears to be representing herself.
