Liara Kaylee Tsai, a trans woman DJ who moved to Minnesota to advance her music career, was found dead at age 35 on June 22.
On the morning of June 22, according to Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), authorities arrived at the site of a car crash roughly 100 miles outside of Minneapolis. The driver of the vehicle, Margot Lewis, an ex-partner of Tsai, was found sitting in a lawn chair in the highway median. Tsai’s body was found in the back seat, and police determined her cause of death was not the crash, as she was cold to the touch and had a puncture wound in her neck. When Tsai’s apartment was investigated, the cops found a “bloody scene” and a missing knife in the kitchen.
An autopsy clarified that Tsai had in fact not died from the car crash, but rather from multiple sharp force injuries. It is still unclear when Tsai died, as her car was seen picking up Lewis from the airport the night before. Lewis has been taken into police custody and is being charged with interference with a dead body in Olmstead County (where Tsai’s body was found) and with second-degree murder.
Olmstead County Sheriff Kevin Torgersten clarified that the death of Tsai was most likely not motivated by anti-trans biases, as both the victim and suspect are trans.
Tsai was deeply loved in the electronic dance and music scene of Minneapolis, as local news channel KARE 11 interviewed several of her friends. Dana Kuzuko, a Minneapolis DJ who worked with and was mentored by Tsai, described her as “this incredible artist who would come to my shows and listen to my mixes and give me feedback.”
In addition to her talent as a musician, “Liara was also just profoundly curious about everybody else. She was herself. She had her beliefs, but she wanted to know what yours were. And then she’d engage and talk about it,” Kuzuko adds.
Tsai also worked as a crisis counselor for the Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization focused on suicide prevention for LGBTQ+ youth. “She is remembered by our team for her empowering gentleness and remarkable ability to center the feelings and experiences of LGBTQ+ young people,” the Trevor Project writes in a memorial Instagram post.
“Liara saved lives through her crisis intervention work, and we are heartbroken that the world has lost an incredibly bright light far too soon.”
Photo courtesy of social media
