The Lululemon Murder
“Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear.”
Yes, it’s that Lululemon that you are thinking of, the luxury store that sells mainly yoga pants.
The father of the victim said,
“Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear.”
On March 11th, 2015, the manager of the Lululemon store in Bethesda, Maryland, arrived at her workplace just to find that the doors to the store were left unlocked. The store was a mess with their products trashed all over the place, indicating perhaps they had been robbed. Horror crept in when she spotted bloody footprints on the floor, leading her to the back of the store. From that direction, she heard someone moaning softly. Freaked out, she dashed out.
Next to the Lululemon store was the Apple store that had a new release of iPad 2. A man named Ryan Haugh shared the concern of the people in the queue for the frantic lady on the phone. He offered to go in and check the store out.
At the back of the store, he found blood splatters all over and as high as 6 feet on the wall. He found a body facedown lying there, lifelessly in a pool of blood, and another woman lying on the bathroom floor. Her hands were bound by a zip tie above her head. Her neck, hands, chest, and forehead were sliced.
When the police arrived, the officer found out that the body of the ‘man’ that Ryan thought he saw was, in fact, a woman. The lifeless woman’s head was bashed. She, too, suffered significant injuries, but her body was covered with so much blood that the extent of her injuries was only revealed later.
The victim was identified as Jayna Murray, an athletic, adventurous, vibrant, and intelligent woman pursuing a double master’s degree in communications and business administration at John Hopkins. The surviving woman in the bathroom was identified as Brittany Norwood, described as having a cheerful personality, and was a soccer player in college with plans of opening her gym one day.
According to Brittany Norwood, both of them closed the store after their shift and parted ways. But Brittany left her wallet in the store, and as an entry saleswoman, she did not have the keys to the store, so she called up Jayna to ask whether she could return to the store and open up the store for her. Jayna, who also left her laptop in the store, agreed.
They searched for Brittany’s wallet for a while, but it was nowhere to be found. Jayna then offered to drive her back as Brittany did not have her metro card for her to commute back.
With the door left unlocked behind the girls, two men in all black with black ski masks and hoodies slipped in. The only description Brittany got of them was that one was tall and the other was short. She did not see the skin color of the men, but she said they sounded white.
One of the men punched Jayna in the head while the other dragged Brittany to the back and just started assaulting and raping her. The assailant also forced Brittany to open the cash register. At the same time, she could hear her friend being assaulted and was in agonizing pain. Brittany was left unconscious in the bathroom until found.
As Brittany was retelling this to the officer, she was inconsolable. Suffering from survivor’s guilt, she kept saying that it was her fault as they only returned to the store because Brittany needed her wallet.
The autopsy showed that Jayna had 331 distinct injuries all over her, not including those overlapping wounds. She suffered 232 blunt force injuries to her body, 99 sharp force injuries, and over 100 injuries on her head. Her skull was cracked in 8 different places. She had at least 5 different wound patterns, indicating that there were at least 5 different weapons used. And she was alive for almost all of the injuries.
During the crime, the Apple employees next door were still working, preparing for the big launch the next day. The managers and security guards heard the struggles, including yelps, thuds, grunts, a dragging noise, and even agonizing breathing next door. The voice was muffled, but one of the more distinguishable sentences was, “Talk to me.”
None of them called the police. Ricardo Rios, one of the managers of the Apple store, said that it might be a private affair where one of them had just received bad news and the other was trying to get her to talk about it. Another security guard of the Apple store, Wilbert Hawkins, was not overly concerned and figured that the crashing noise was just merchandise knocked over.
The lack of action could possibly be caused by the bystander effect. Or simply because Bethesda, one of the wealthiest suburbs in Maryland, has relatively rare crimes. They were located in Bethesda Row, a street that is filled with high-end luxury stores, and at that time of the crime, there were still passersby on the sidewalk.
The two detectives immediately began their investigation with the information provided by Brittany. From the Apple store’s CCTV, they found two men matching the description given by Brittany around the time of the crime. They were all in black, with one tall and the other short. As described, one of them had a backpack on. During the stakeout, the detectives found that two were busboys from a nearby restaurant, and this was their daily route. Their alibi for that night also checked out.
Among the many tips received from the department tip lines, many of those were aimed at Keith Lockett. Keith was a tall, black homeless man who drank a lot and was charged with robbery, assault and battery, cocaine possession, and disorderly conduct. On the afternoon of the murder, he and his buddy, who happened to be a short guy, were not seen at his usual store. However, he was cleared as he was involved with another fight 6 miles away.
Here is where things don’t add up.
- The forensic found a large man’s sneaker with the size 14 hidden at the crime scene. It was the perfect match with the bloody footprint. The sneaker had blood splattered on the shoe, but the sole was clean.
- The bloody footprints were only found in the store without any trails outside. Did the assailant put on the store’s shoe and then leave barefoot?
- The wounds on Brittany were superficial, while Jayna suffered deadly blows.
- Moreover, her wounds were all straight and had the same depth, indicating that she did not squirm during the attack.
- Brittany failed to see the skin color of the assailant despite being so close to the assailant, and the ski mask would generally expose the area around the eyes.
- The car Jayna drove was parked so far away when it was likely that she could get a closer spot to the store as it was already 10 pm. An officer also saw someone in the parked car at 12.30 am.
- In Jayna’s car, they found blood smears and DNA from both Brittany and Jayna. Brittany’s bloodied hat was also found in the backseat.
The detective began suspecting Brittany Norwood, but this was a high-profile case with media coverage all over it, so they had to tread carefully to suspect the ‘victim.’ Brittany had a long history of stealing. When she was younger, she was suspected of stealing money and jewelry from her neighbor when her sister babysat their neighbor’s son. Her soccer teammates, too, accused Brittany of stealing, to which she admitted and apologized.
She also had a restraining order from her ex-boyfriend, who accused her of stealing his current girlfriend’s belonging. Her ex-boyfriend said that Brittany also stole from him when they were together, and she would punch and throw things at him. Her very own sister accused her of stealing $300 from her wallet. During her previous employment, there were multiple incidents of missing cash reported, and Brittany was always working on the shift of the incident.
The detectives, Drewry and Ruvin, began plotting their next move to catch Brittany lying, and their best bet was catching her lying about her never being in Jayna’s car. It would then make the DNA evidence much stronger. At the same time, Brittany would not be able to use the defense that she must have been in the car before the incident.
It was no easy feat as they had to make sure that she felt comfortable enough to talk to them without the presence of a lawyer. Legally, the detectives do not have to remind her of her constitutional rights as they left the interrogation door open, and she was free to leave any time she wanted.
Under the pretense that Brittany was only there for fingerprint and hair samples like many others, the detective began with casual talk. Britanny said that she only saw Jayna’s car once. She attempted to cover her plot holes on her superficial injuries by saying that the assailant said that she was more fun to f*ck with. Before the detectives let her go, she affirmatively denied that she was ever given a ride in Jayna’s car.
She probably realized her mistake as she later returned to the police station along with her sister and elder brother. She said that she forgot to mention that she was forced to drive Jayna’s car away as the assailants kept watch on her and threatened to kill her if she drove away. They also said that they knew where she lived.
But once again, the assailants could never catch up with her if she had sped off to a nearby police station. She mentioned that she saw a cop but was too afraid to call for help. During her walk back, people did give her glances at her extensive injuries, but none bothered to ask her.
While her preposterous lies indicated she was clearly not innocent of the crime, there was not any hard evidence that would indicate she solely did the crime. Drewry tried to get Brittany tangled in another lie as he tried to push the blame to Jayna, who perhaps started the fight, and Brittany merely reacted to it.
Meanwhile, Ruvin attempted a gentler approach as he tried to reach out with sympathy, but Brittany felt cornered, and she said she wanted to go home. The two detectives couldn’t deny her request unless they informed her of her constitutional right. Under the advice of the prosecutor, they read out her rights so they could interrogate her for several more hours. However, Brittany kept to her story and denied everything.
The detectives began to reel her siblings in to see if they could get a confession out of her. They explained that their little sister’s story did not add up by showing the photos of the evidence against her and Brittany’s saliva was also found on her zip-tie. While her brother, Chris, also found that her story had too many holes, he did not want to ‘betray’ his little sister. He thought that he still had the chance of getting Brittany out of the station as long as she did not admit to anything.
When he was left alone with Brittany, he straight-on asked whether she did it; she did not deny nor confirm it. She only said that she did not want to talk about it there. Also, she repeatedly asked whether they would be recorded, and ridiculously enough, Chris was convinced that they were not being recorded in an interrogation room. Chris believed that even if recording devices were in that room, it could not be used in court. Though, in reality, they can.
In another room, the prosecutor listened to everything, including Chris mentioning that Brittany cannot plead insanity as she has talked to too many people, including counselors. He also taught Brittany to lie better as she had the tendency to look down whenever she lies. When Marissa, the elder sister, joined them, Chris told her that Brittany had admitted to him.
Surely enough, Brittany was charged with first-degree murder and life in prison without the possibility of parole. In the trial, it was revealed that the Lululemon store was planning to fire her as there were reports of her stealing. She only had to be caught in action, and she would be let go.
That night of the crime, Jayna caught her stealing a pair of yoga pants during the routine bag checks. It was in her bag, and Brittany had no receipt to prove her purchase. Both the manager who had supposedly cleared the transaction and the computer had no record of this transaction. That night, Brittany lured Jayna back to the store.
Despite pleading for mercy, the judge denied her of reducing her sentence. The judge said that it was a well pre-mediated murder and,
After every blow, you could have stopped.
She was sentenced to life in prison without any possibility of parole.
The Lululemon store in Bethesda set up a memorial for Jayna with a picture of her and stained glass with the word, love. Her brothers also set up a foundation to help others in her name.
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