Deputies found a woman who was dead in a vehicle at the scene of a crash in southern Minnesota and arrested the driver after determining that the wreck was not what killed her, officials said Monday.
The deputies were dispatched to the crash about 7 a.m. Saturday on eastbound Interstate 90 near the Hwy. 42 exit south of Eyota, according to the Olmsted County Sheriff's Office. A state trooper reported that the vehicle hit a guardrail, a State Patrol spokeswoman said.
The 32-year-old driver was out of the vehicle and being tended to by a passerby, the Sheriff's Office said. Deputies soon located a 35-year-old woman dead in the back seat.
"The condition of the deceased was suspicious, and it was immediately apparent that the death was not the result of a motor vehicle accident," a statement from the Sheriff's Office read. The statement did not elaborate on what led to deputies deeming the death suspicious. The woman's identity has yet to be disclosed.
Minneapolis police became involved in the case that afternoon when the BCA requested that officers do a welfare check at the dead woman's address in the 700 block of 16th St. E. in Minneapolis. That night officers executed a search warrant at the address. They found "a scene indicating violence" in the home, Minneapolis police said in a news release.
The driver was checked medically at a nearby hospital, then she was booked into jail on suspicion of interference with a dead body. Charges have yet to be filed. The Star Tribune generally does not identify suspects before they are charged.
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