Jun. 25—ROCHESTER — A 32-year-old Iowa woman was charged on Tuesday with a felony after the Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office discovered a body in the backseat of a vehicle she was driving that crashed Saturday.

Margot G. Lewis, of North Liberty, Iowa, is facing one count of interference with a dead body. The body was identified as Liara Tsai, a 35-year-old woman from Minneapolis.

According to the criminal complaint, the sheriff’s office responded to the intersection of Interstate 90 and Minnesota Highway 42, near Eyota, for a single-vehicle crash on June 22. The deputy determined the vehicle, driven by Lewis, to be speeding when it hit the median.

At the scene, OCSO found a Chevrolet Sonic in the center median. While a bystander tended to Lewis, the deputy opened the backseat door and saw the head of a human body, which was wrapped in a bed sheet, blanket, futon-style mattress and a tarp.

The body was cold to the touch, and the deputy was unable to find a pulse. The deputy also saw a “large wound on the right side of the neck,” the complaint said. The deputy reported that it was apparent the death of the person in the backseat was not a result of the crash.

On Tuesday, the Minneapolis Police Department said the body found may be tied to a “scene indicating violence” at a home in Minneapolis. MPD is assisting the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension with the investigation into the “suspicious death.”

Lewis made her first appearance in Olmsted County District Court on Tuesday.