A Normal Day
On March 11, 201, a Lululemon employee named Rachel went to open up the store in Bethesda, Maryland, as she did every single day. What she found inside, however, was completely unexpected.
She found one of the most horrifying scenes imaginable. The first red flag was that the door was unlocked, meaning that someone was inside the store already. Then, she noticed that a few things were knocked over and there were clothes on the floor. But nothing prepared her for what she found in the back of the store.
Things Out Of Place
Rachel had a bad feeling about the whole situation, so she asked a random man on the street to help her go inside because she did not want to go in alone. The two of them headed to the back of the store and noticed that all the cash registers were open, meaning that this was a potential robbery.
In the back room, there was glass everywhere and most things were on the floor. But the most disturbing part was the blood, which was everywhere. Not only that, but there was a trail of bloody footprints leading to the back. The two people decided to follow it while they were waiting for the police.
A Terrifying Discovery
As they moved further into the back, they found more and more blood. The trail of blood eventually led them to a horrifying discovery: a dead body. It appeared to be a woman, but the body was face down in a thick pool of blood, so it wasn't easy to tell.
As if this scene wasn't scary enough, Rachel and the man suddenly heard a noise coming from further back. The man was brave enough to go check what it was, and luckily, found another woman, who was still alive.
The Survivor
The girl had her hands and feet tied and was laying on her back. She had lots of cuts and slashes all over her body, but no visible stab wounds. She was still breathing, so it was urgent to get an ambulance at the scene.
The girl who survived was Brittany Norwood, a store employee. The one who tragically lost her life was identified as Jayna Murray, also an employee. From the get go, this seemed like a very clear case of a robbery gone wrong.
The Crime Scene
The scene was a complete mess, but the police still managed to put some pieces of the puzzle together. A tool box was found and several tools were scattered all over the place, some with blood on them, which meant that they could have been used as weapons.
Jayna's body was laying on a huge puddle of her own blood, and her injuries were almost too many to count. There were also the bloody footprints, which belonged to two different people: one seemed to be a small women's size, and the other one was a men's size 14.
More Evidence
The last big piece of evidence was that the footprints led to a sink in the back-room bathroom, meaning that the killer probably took them off and washed away some blood right there. The fire exit in the back of the store had blood on it, but there was no blood on the outside, so they probably did not leave through that door.
interestingly enough, the fire exit door would ring an alarm unless it was opened with an employee key and sure enough, the key was in the door. This meant that no alarm ever rang and nobody heard what was going on inside.
Jayna's Autopsy
As the crime scene was still being investigated, the results of Jayna's autopsy came back, and they were like nothing the police in Bethesda had ever seen before. Jayna suffered a total of 331 injuries all over he body, caused by different weapons, believed to be the tools from the store's own toolbox. Her murder was beyond brutal.
There were many stab wounds on her body but also beating and self-defense wounds, plus cuts and bruises. Her skull was severely fractured, and the worst part of it all is that the police believe that she was still alive right up until the last injury was made. The last one was a single stab to the back of her neck.
Brittany's Injuries
Meanwhile, Brittany Norwood was in the hospital. She was completely covered in blood when she was found, so it was hard to tell what her injuries were. Once she arrived at the hospital however, the doctors realized her injuries were mainly superficial.
Luckily, she only had a few cuts and slashes that would heal on their own. Because of this, the police concluded that she was fit to answer a few questions. It was important for them to get as much information as possible so they could catch the perpetrators before they got away.
What Happened
Brittany told police that both she and Jayna had been attacked by two men. The girls closed the store and actually left but had to come back because she had forgotten her subway pass at the store. Brittany called Jayna on the phone so that she would come back and open the door for her.
Then, all of a sudden, they were ambushed by two men dressed in all black and wearing ski masks. One was very tall and the other one very short. According to Brittany, the tall guy dragged Jayna to the back room and she could not see what happened in there. Meanwhile, the short man attacked her and sexually assaulted her.
The Robbery
The men then took all the money that was in the car registers and dragged Brittany to the back too. There, she saw Jayna's lifeless body. The men then actually told her that they weren't going to kill her because they were going to continue assaulting her.
Then, the men just left, and Brittany spent the rest of the night tied up in the back room next to Jayna's lifeless body. The creepiest part of the whole case was that the men apparently knew Brittany's name and address, meaning that this attack had been planned.
Security Cameras
There was only one store on that street that had security cameras and the police luckily spotted two men dressed in all black walking down that street on the night of the attack in the footage.
Also, a woman and a security guard who worked on the store next door told the police that they heard screaming and dragging noises that night. They didn't really do anything about it because they thought people were just being loud and having fun. It never crossed their minds that there was a crime being committed.
Witnesses
However, the woman also said that she heard women's voices saying "Please, don't do this!" and "God, help me!" Now, that doesn't sound like people having fun, does it?
The police followed the lead of the two men seen on the security camera, but upon investigation, they discovered that they were waiters going to work nearby. They were identified and their alibis checked out. This meant that now they had no suspects anymore.
More Leads
While the investigation was going on, Bethesda residents would call the police to give any information or ideas they had about the attackers. Several people told the police about a homeless man named Keith who was always walking around the shopping area where the Lululemon store was.
Keith was known for being aggressive and making unwanted advances on women who walked passed him. A man said that he saw Keith walk past the store that night wearing all black and a backpack and that he talked to another man who was shorter than him. This could mean that Keith and the mysterious man were the attackers.
Keith
So, where was the homeless man eventually found? Well, he had arrived to a hospital on the night of the murder covered in blood. To anyone, this would seem extremely suspicious.
However, the police actually determined that Keith had gotten into a fight with another homeless man that night and that's why he was covered in blood - his own blood. There was no DNA of any of the girls on his clothes and his alibi checked out. So, the police were back to square one.
Strange Things
Now that they had no suspects, the police decided to review all the information they already had and realized that certain things didn't add up. First, according to Brittany, the men were wearing ski masks and knew Brittany's name, meaning that they had planned to attack the girls that night.
However, all the weapons used in the crime were objects found in the store. They were all tools from the store's tool box, and even the zip ties used to tie the girls up belonged to the store. So, these two men planned to attack two women but went in without any weapons and just happened to find them inside the store? That made no sense.
More Inconsistencies
Not only that, but the girls had already left and closed the store that night, and they only happened to come back because Brittany had forgotten her subway card in the store. How could they know they were going back to the store? And why didn't they attack them before?
It was also strange that the killers stole all the money from the store but still stayed there to torture the girls and end up killing Jayna instead of just running away with the money. Then, the police noticed a huge clue they had missed all along.
The Footprints
At the crime scene, the police found two sets of bloody footprints, remember? One belonged to a size 14 men's shoe and the other one was a small women's shoe. However, there were supposedly four people there: Brittany, Jayna, and the two attackers.
Surely there would be some more footprints, right? And then, the biggest piece of the puzzle was put together: the bloody shoes. The police had found one of the two pairs of shoes that left the footprints at the scene, and Rachel, the store manager who found the crime scene, gave an important piece of information about them.
The Shoes
When Rachel saw those shoes she recognized them right away: they were store property and were there for people to try on clothes with the shoes if they wished to. After all, Lululemon sold athletic wear, so people sometimes wanted to try on the clothes while wearing sport shoes.
This meant that one of the attackers, for some unknown reason, had taken off his own shoes and put on the store-owned shoes at the crime scene and walked around leaving bloody shoe prints. Did that make any sense? No. Well, at least not for now.
Brittany's Story
When you think about it, the only reason why the evidence doesn't make sense is because it is compared to Brittany's story. This led police to believe that something about her account of the events was strange and maybe she knew much more than she was saying.
Although they didn't want to investigate her at first, the police had no choice at this point. They had no suspects, no leads, and only had a strange story by one of the victims. The only way to find more about this case was to start looking into Brittany Norwood.
Britanny's Past
Upon investigation, the police discovered that Brittany had a history of petty thefts. Ever since she was in high school, she had been caught stealing from friends and fellow students multiple times.
She was a rising star in college soccer but was caught stealing from her teammates and eventually left the team because of that. And that was just one of many incidents involving Brittany.
Kleptomaniac
Brittany was also caught stealing rent money from her roommate. She told her roommate that she should give her her half of the rent and she would then give it all to the landlord, but she actually kept the money.
It was also discovered that, before working at the Lululemon store in Bethesda, Brittany worked at another Lululemon store, but was fired. And why had she been fired? For stealing, of course. It seemed as though Brittany was a kleptomaniac and could not control her impulses to steal.
No Evidence
We can all agree that stealing is never okay, but just because somebody steals it doesn't mean they are going to commit a heinous crime such as murder. There was still no evidence to link Brittany to Jayna's murder, but she did seem suspicious.
In fact, Brittany seemed like a person who could not be trusted. Not only was she known for stealing, but she was also known for lying a lot. She actually lied to her friends and family saying that she had graduated college when in fact, she hadn't.
More Suspicious Behavior
When her other coworkers were asked about Brittany, they all said that, even though she had only been working at that store for six weeks, she had acted strangely a few times.
In fact, she was caught abusing her employee discount, which had a cap of $1,000, by $2,000 past the limit. Not only that, but she had been suspected of stealing from the store and her coworkers but she hadn't been caught. However, all signs pointed to her.
Concerns
Rachel, the store manager, actually told the police that she and other employees, including Jayna, had a meeting to discuss Britanny's future in the store after being suspected of stealing. If she was caught or was even suspected of stealing again, she was going to be fired.
Believe it or not, just one day before the murder, Jayna called Rachel to tell her that she believed Brittany had stolen from the company once again. Needless to say after knowing this, it wouldn't be a surprise that Jayna and Brittany did not actually like each other.
Bad Blood
And sure enough, all the employees who were interviewed told police that Jayna and Brittany did not like each other. Jayna did not trust Brittany because of her illegal behavior, and of course, Brittany did not like Jayna because she ratted her out for stealing.
While there was no evidence to conclude that Brittany had done anything wrong, these witness accounts gave her a motive. What if she hurt Jayna because she had caught her stealing and she did not want to lose her job?
More Clues
At this point, the results of Brittany's medical checkups had come back, and they gave police even more reason to suspect her. Even though she had claimed that the two attackers had sexually assaulted her, the results came back negative.
Not only had she not been assaulted, but one of the injuries she had on her hand was consistent with a blade. It was the kind of injury that you would only get from actually gripping a blade and not being attacked with it. Now, it was more clear than ever: Brittany was responsible for killing Jayna.
Going After Brittany
The police decided to re-examine all the evidence they had and compare it to their new theory, and now things were starting to make sense. There was no evidence of four people being in the store that night and no DNA of any men whatsoever found in the scene.
Not only that, but all the weapons used in the attack belonged to the store itself and had never left the scene. The zip ties that Brittany had around her wrists and feet were actually found to have bite marks on them, suggesting she had put them on herself and tightened them with her teeth.
The Injuries
Another suspicious part of the case was the difference between the girls' injuries. Brittany only had a few cuts and slashes here and there, while Jayna had been brutally attacked and wounded 331 times!
Also, most of the blood found on the scene was Jayna's. Even though Brittany was also covered in blood when she was found, she was actually covered in Jayna's blood. She herself hadn't bled much, given that her injuries were mostly superficial.
The Interrogation
Even though it all made sense, the police didn't have quite enough evidence to really charge Brittany with any crime. All they could do was interrogate Brittany and hope they could talk her into confessing or at least giving more information about her inconsistent version of events.
They told her directly that they did not believe her story and that they wanted her to tell the truth. She still maintained her story, so the police used a different tactic. They invited her brother into the interrogation room and left them alone while they could hear and see them from the next room.
Recorded
While Brittany and her brother were alone in the interrogation room, Brittany asked her brother to check the room for cameras. He didn't find any but of course, the room was completely bugged. Everything they said and did was caught on video.
There, her brother asked her if she really commit the murder, to which she responded "I don't want to talk about it here". This was enough for police to arrest Brittany on suspicion of murder.
What Really Went Down
It was all clear now. Jayna had caught Brittany stealing, which meant that Brittany was going to be fired for it. She couldn't let Jayna tell the manager about it, so after closing time, she lured Jayna back into the store with the excuse of having forgotten her subway card.
Then, she grabbed the store's toolbox and brutally attacked Jayna. Once she was dead, Brittany staged a robbery, gave herself a few cuts, and then zip-tied herself and waited for someone to find them the next morning.
The Trial
The evidence against Brittany was too strong, so her lawyer just couldn't deny it and get away with it. So, her lawyer claimed that Brittany had done this because she was mentally ill. And of course, to commit such a brutal murder she was probably mentally ill to some degree.
However, she was still found guilty of the murder of Jayna and was sentenced to life without parole. Whether she was mentally ill or not, she was a danger to society and could not be let out on the streets ever again. Jayna's family set up a foundation in her name and miss her every single day.