Margot Lewis makes first court appearance for murder charges, search warrants detail crime scene in Minneapolis

HENNEPIN COUNTY, Minn. (KTTC) – The Iowa woman accused of murdering Liara Tsai, 35, of Minneapolis, made her first court appearance Monday in Hennepin County.

Margot Lewis faces two charges of second-degree murder in Hennepin County and one charge for interfering with a dead body in Olmsted County.

On Saturday, June 22, Lewis crashed the car she was driving on I-90 near Eyota. Good Samaritans found Lewis sitting in the grass median and noticed a body wrapped up in the back seat. The car’s registration led back to Tsai’s Minneapolis apartment where investigators found a “violent scene”.

During Lewis’s first appearance in Hennepin County, a judge set her bail at $1.5 million with conditions. Meaning if Lewis posts bail, she has to follow a set of rules laid out by the court.

New search warrants obtained by KTTC detail items taken by investigators from Tsai’s Minneapolis apartment. Most items were taken from the bed, which according to Lewis’s criminal complaint, was saturated with blood.

According to the search warrant, investigators also pulled blood-stained shoes from the garbage. Lewis’s criminal complaint says blood was also located in the apartment’s bathroom.

Lewis is tentatively scheduled for another court hearing in Olmsted County on July 5 and Hennepin County on July 30.

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