A Minnesota woman is facing several decades of incarceration following a chilling crime in which she murdered her former partner and transported the body in her car.

Margot Lewis, aged 33, received a guilty verdict in September on charges of second-degree murder with intent and second-degree murder without intent while wielding a dangerous weapon, as reported by Law&Crime.

This week, Lewis was handed a 40-year prison sentence for the heinous stabbing of Liara Tsai, a well-known DJ from Minneapolis. The crime unfolded on June 22, 2024, when Lewis fatally attacked her ex-girlfriend by stabbing her in the neck. After the murder, she wrapped Tsai’s body in bedding, a mattress reminiscent of a futon, and a tarp.

The discovery of Tsai’s body was as unexpected as it was tragic. Lewis had hidden the corpse in Tsai’s own vehicle. While driving along Interstate 90 near Highway 42 in Eyota, Lewis got into an accident. Two good Samaritans who stopped to assist were met with the harrowing sight of Tsai’s remains.

The grim discovery of the victim’s remains was a twist of fate — Lewis had the body stashed in Tsai’s own car and was driving the vehicle on Interstate 90 near Highway 42 in Eyota when she crashed. Two good Samaritans stopped to help and found the deceased woman’s body.

Then, in ever more bizarre fashion, Lewis pulled out a lawn chair and sat on the side of the highway to await the awful find.

Quickly, authorities arrived on the scene.

“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 Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release. “The condition of the deceased was suspicious, and it was immediately apparent that the death was not a result of the motor vehicle accident.”

Lewis was charged with murder days later.

Tire tracks indicated to law enforcement that Lewis was moving at a high rate of speed before the accident, according to a charging document obtained by Law&Crime. When investigators searched the vehicle, officers found dried blood on the blanket and mattress the victim was wrapped in. The slain woman was positioned in the back seat with her head aimed toward the passenger seat and her feet facing the driver’s seat.

Later, the Minneapolis Police Department executed a search warrant at Tsai’s residence and found a bloody state of affairs suggesting “significant violence,” according to Rochester, Minnesota-based radio station KROC. Some kind of a plastic and metal object was found on a bed covered in blood, antifreeze and a small shovel were present, and a knife was missing from a butcher’s block in the kitchen, authorities noted.

In court, Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Erin Lutz described the murder as a profound “betrayal” of the heart and more — explaining that Tsai had been writing love poems to Lewis while Lewis was journaling her urge to kill Tsai, according to a courtroom report by Minneapolis-based NBC affiliate KARE.

“There is no doubt Ms. Tsai was a bright, vibrant, creative woman whose death has left a hole in the hearts of so many who knew and loved her,” the prosecutor said. “While the court sentence today can’t bring Ms. Tsai back, it can capture the gruesome and horrific nature of the actions of Margot Lewis, which resulted in her death and the pain that so many are experiencing today.”

Lewis, for her part, was unrepentant and combative.

“I loved her even when things got bad, and I never would have killed her,” the since-condemned woman said during the abortive allocution.

Then, when 4th Judicial District Judge Paul Scoggin tried to explain the rationale behind the sentence, Lewis began to interrupt.

“Ma’am, this is not a discussion,” the judge chided. “Do you understand me? Nothing more!”

The murderess received an upward sentencing departure requested by the state; she was, however, given 517 days of credit spent in pretrial detention. Notably, Lewis still faces charges for hiding Tsai’s body.