It’s not often that someone gets along with every single one of their coworkers. There’s always that one person we just don’t really mesh with. However, it’s extremely rare for that level of indifference – or even dislike – to turn deadly.
Jayna Troxel Murray was born on November 22nd, 1980, in Wichita, Kansas, though she spent most of her childhood in Houston, Texas. Growing up, she loved being active, and especially enjoyed dance. She was also a track star, and used her dancing skills to earn medals in various track and field categories.
Jayna was a straight-A student, and most people knew her to be an overachiever. She loved animals, volunteering at non-profit organizations, and extreme sports, such as skydiving and bungee jumping. She also really enjoyed yoga.
Jayna had intended on pursuing dancing as a career, as she was especially talented at tap dance, and wanted to audition for Broadway productions. However, she soon changed tracks, and enrolled at George Washington University, earning her degree in business. After graduating with her business degree. Jayne worked a corporate marketing job for close to five years.
Feeling that this had run its course for her, Jayna decided to pursue her MBA, as well as another graduate degree, at John’s Hopkins. She focused her thesis work on the Lululemon yoga store’s business model. As part of her research, Jayna got a job at the Bethesda, Maryland branch store in 2011.
Upon completing her thesis, Jayna decided to stay on at the store until the end of the semester. She was a bright, young, vivacious 30-year-old who was full of life, love, laughter, and energy. In March of 2011, she was only 10 weeks away from completing all of her graduate work.
All of her colleagues liked her at the yoga store. They found her smile infectious, and enjoyed that she seemed to embody all of Lululemon’s personal growth and goal setting philosophies. However, Jayna was a little bit wary of one of her colleagues, Brittany Norwood.
Brittany Norwood was born on May 9th, 1982 in Washington state. She was one of nine children.
She was an excellent soccer player, and was recruited out of high school to play with Stoney Brook University in Long Island, New York on an athletic scholarship. However, her soccer dreams didn’t last very long.
While in college in 2003, she was accused of stealing personal items, cash, perfume, and other things from her classmates, teammates, and roommates. Due to all the accusations, Brittany was expelled from the school, and lost her scholarship, though no criminal charges were ever filed.
Shortly after her expulsion, Brittany took a job at a hotel in Washington, D.C., but later applied for a job at Lululemon. Though she was well-liked and well-respected at the hotel, Brittany had dreams of pursuing a career in fitness, and becoming a personal trainer.
Initially, Brittany worked at the Georgetown Lululemon location, but soon transferred to the Bethesda location. There was a gym nearby that she’d applied to to earn her certification as a personal trainer. At the age of 28, Brittany Norwood would meet Jayna Murray, and both of their lives would change forever.
On Friday, March 11th, 2011, three weeks after Brittany had transferred to the Bethesda location of the extremely popular (if overpriced and body-shaming) yoga store, she and Jayna began closing down the store at around 9:00 PM. Jayna was the shift leader – she was filling in for another colleague who had called in sick – which meant it was up to her to perform the nightly bag checks, per company policy. Jayna discovered a pair of yoga pants from the store in Brittany’s purse.
This wasn’t the first time that Brittany’s thieving had been brought up to Jayna, and other store managers. Other store employees had brought up the fact that some of their personal items had started going missing since Brittany’s arrival to the store. There had been discussion of installing hidden cameras in order to apprehend the thief.
However, Jayna had caught Brittany. Brittany denied that she’d stolen the pants, but Jayna didn’t believe her. She took them, and placed a call to store manager Rachel, informing her of what she’d found. Unofficial sources claim that Jayna had told Rachel: “We caught the bitch”. This statement cannot be corroborated, and seems highly out of character for Jayna. Rachel did go on record stating she’d replied to Jayna’s call sayng: “We’ll deal with it tomorrow”.
At around 9:45, Jayna and Brittany closed down the store, and went their separate ways home. Jayna went to her car, and Brittany started walking towards the train station. When Brittany got to the station, she allegedly noticed that she’d forgotten her wallet at the store. She texted a coworker, stating that she needed Jayna’s number to go back to the store and retrieve it, and she didn’t have her number. When she got ahold of Jayna, she asked her to meet her back at the store, so that she could get her wallet. Jayna agreed, and the two women returned to the store at around 9:51 PM.
A few minutes later, around 10:00 PM, employees of the neighbouring Apple store were setting up for a product launch the following day when they began hearing strange noises through the wall they shared with the Lululemon store. Video surveillance shows the employees with their ears pressed against the wall, listening as they heard ‘hysterical’ female voices, screaming, yelling, squealing, thudding, and grunting. They also stated they heard one woman say: “Talk to me, don’t do this, talk to me, what’s going on.”
As they continued to listen, they heard more yelps, screams, and yells. Then, they heard the same voice as before saying: “God, help me. Please, help me”. At no point did they alert the security guard on duty, who hadn’t heard a thing as they were listening to their iPod, nor did they call the police. When asked why, they said: “We thought it was just drama”.
In reality, Jayna had just been viciously attacked, with various objects, and had been left to die. But, of course, to the Apple store employees, that would qualify as “just drama”.
Around 8:00 AM, Saturday, March 12th, 2011, Rachel, the Lululemon store manager arrived at the store and found the doors unlocked, which was highly unusual. When she entered the store, she found clothes strewn everywhere, and a broken TV on the floor. As she walked further into the store, she heard moaning coming from the back. Scared, she ran outside and called the police.
A bystander, who was waiting for the Apple product launch, saw Rachel appearing frantic, and asked if she needed help. When she told him what she found, he told her he would go in and check it out. As he walked through the store, he came across a large, long trail of blood. Then, he found a body. Next, he found a woman, tied up on the floor of a bathroom, in a sports bra and ripped pants, with her hands and feet zip tied. When he reported what he’d found to Rachel, she called the police again, reporting that one person in her store was dead, and another was breathing.
First impressions indicated that it was a robbery gone wrong. The store was ransacked, and the cash registers were completely empty. Then they came across the body of Jayna Murray. She’d been mutilated almost beyond recognition.
They found Brittany tied up in the bathroom. She had cuts to her hands and arms, and a large cut along her forehead. Her hands were tied above her head, and her pants had been torn open at the crotch. At first, they didn’t realize that Brittany was alive. She was covered in so, so much blood.
Brittany was taken to the hopsital to receive care. There, she told the detectives a harrowing tale.
She told them that she and Jayna had closed the store, and left, when she realized that she’d forgotten her wallet. She asked Jayna to meet her back at the store to retrieve her belongings. As they were searching, they’d both forgotten to lock the front door. Brittany stated that two caucasian, medium-built, men dressed all in black wearing ski masks had barged in, and attacked them. They were throwing things around, demanding money. Then, one of them punched Jayna in the face, and took her to the back. Brittany was absolutely terrified.
One of the men began assaulting Brittany, calling her racist names and throwing racial slurs at her, then the other joined in. Brittany then stated that she blacked out in the middle of the assault, and didn’t remember anything after that until she woke up in the ambulance, and was informed she was being taken to hopsital.
News of the attack spread like wildfire throughout the community. The residents of Bethesda, a highly affluent community, were absolutely terrified that two anonymous men were on the loose, ready to strike again. Stores in the area began installing CCTV security systems, and employees were being escorted to their vehicles, or transit stations, by hired security guards.
As police looked into Brittany’s horrific account of the events, they found something interesting from the Apple store’s security footage. They found two men who fit the description walking by right around the time of the attack at the Lululemon store. Immediately, police needed to find these men – they were their prime suspects.
Police staked out the store, wondering if the men would walk by again. As luck would have it, they did.
As the men were questioned, they informed investigators that they were employees of a nearby restaurant, and that they were walking their regular route home after work. Investigators checked their alibi, and found it to be completely sound – the two men were at work when the attack occurred at Lululemon, and had simply been caught walking home after work.
That theory was quashed, but investigators were beginning to form another.
In the initial days of the investigation, investigators were treading lightly. They had a survivor of a horrifying attack, telling them awful details. They were careful not to re-traumatize Brittany too much after her ordeal. But some things just didn’t really click right. Parts of Brittany’s story just didn’t make sense. But was it trauma, or something else?
Most notably, investigators wondered by Brittany had gotten away with a few wounds – declared superficial by attending physicians upon Brittany’s arrival at the hospital – while Jayna had been slaughtered. The medical examiner had reported 331 injuries to Jayna’s person – that they could count. They couldn’t account for all of the overlapping wounds.
Brittany had told investigators that both women had been brutally sexually assaulted. However, examinations found no evidence of this. Investigators were still wary, though. They didn’t want to make any false statements until they’d gotten all the facts lined up and in order.
Especially damning were the footprints found in the store. One set clearly belonged to Brittany. Another belonged to a size-14 men’s shoe. But the footprints didn’t lead outside the store. Police then found a pair of shoes, used when customers were trying on clothes and wanted to test them out in the workout room, in a rack. The soles had been wiped clean, but there were traces of blood found along the sides.
Another factors that made them doubt Brittany’s word was that her superficial wounds appeared to be self-inflicted.
A few days later, investigators found Jayna’s car parked three blocks away from the store. A preliminary examination of the inside of the car found blood on the gear shift, and the steering wheel. They also found a hat in the backseat. Testing proved that the blood inside Jayna’s car belonged to both Jayna and Brittany.
When she’d returned to the store, Jayna had parked out front, in a no-parking zone. The car needed to be moved, to avoid suspicion. Brittany was then brought into the police station, where, prompted by her siblings, she told them she had something to say.
Initially, when investigators had asked her about Jayna’s car, Brittany had told them she’d never been in the car. She’d lied, she told detectives, she was scared. Before the attackers had attacked her, they’d already gotten Jayna to the back, and demanded that Brittany move the car. She said that she had ten minutes to move it and come back, or they would find her and kill her, as they knew where she lived, and whom her roommates were.
When police asked why she hadn’t simply fled, or driven to a police station, she didn’t have any other answer other than that she was terrified.
However, the evidence pointed to a failed cover-up. Investigators believed that, with evidence of the stolen yoga pants, Brittany saw her future slowly go down the drain. Desperate, she lured Jayna back to the store, and attacked her. Once she’d realized the gravity of her actions, she moved Brittany’s car, then tried to concoct a story to cover up what she’d done.
On March 18th, 2011, seven days after the brutal attack on Jayna Murray at the Lululemon store, Brittany Norwood was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
From late October to early November, the trial of Brittany Norwood lasted only 8 days.
The defence conceded that yes, Brittany had murdered Jayna. But none of it was pre-meditated. The defence posited that Brittany had just ‘lost control’; she snapped.
They were aiming to have the charges brought down from first-degree murder, to second-degree murder. This meant that Brittany may have a chance at parole.
The prosecution weren’t buying it for a second. They told the story of Jayna’s attack, in excruciating detail. The blood spatter showed that Jayna had at first been attacked standing up, then crouching down, then finally prone on the floor. Brittany kept going back for more and more objects with which to attack Brittany – a merchandise rod, a hammer, a wrench, two different box cutters, a large serrated knife, a razor, and some rope around Jayna’s neck.
The medical examiner spoke of the 331 wounds that they were able to determine were on Jayna. They also stated that Jayna defended herself until the very end – the medical examiner stated they’d never seen so many defensive wounds on one single person. They also stated that Jayna had been alive for the entirety of the attack.
Jayna had fought for her life – right up until Brittany stabbed her in the back of the neck, severing her spinal cord. This, the medical examiner determined, was the fatal blow.
The prosecution were dealt one major blow – they couldn’t present Brittany’s shoplifting as their motive. Without being able to present the motive, the prosecution had a hard time proving that Brittany had planned the attack on Jayna.
The defence took this and ran, stating that without a motive, the prosecution could absolutely not prove first-degree murder. Clearly, this was a case of second-degree murder – a heat of the moment attack where Brittany lost control, and went after Jayna. Then, the defence claimed, Brittany couldn’t quite come to terms with what she’d done. Instead, she used her imagination, and concocted a tale that was plausible in her mind.
The jury was not convinced by the defence’s, well, defence. Brittany Norwood was convicted of the first-degree murder of Jayna Murray. In January of 2012, Brittany was sentenced to life, with no possibility of parole.
Brittany’s defence team filed an appeal, and requested a new trial. On April 29h, 2015, this was rebuffed. Brittany Norwood is not left with any options for a direct appeal.
It’s one thing to dislike your coworkers, or to just not get along with them. However, those events rarely end in an attack as horrifying as the attack on Jayna Murray.
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Sources:
‘The Yoga Store Murder: The Shocking True Account of the Lululemon Athletica Killing’ by Dan Morse – Daniel Stashower – The Washington Post
Lululemon: The horrifying murder over a pair of leggings – Bec Heim – Film Daily
Stab in the Dark – Christopher Beam – Slate
Sinisterhood Podcast – Episode 129 – Jayna Murray – The Lululemon Murder
Morbid: A True Crime Podcast – Episodes 93 and 94 – The Lululemon Murder – Part 1 and Part 2