Every Town - Maryland’s Most Shocking Murder: The Lululemon Case

Episode Date: September 26, 2025

Today, we’re diving into the unsettling crime cover-up that happened at a Lululemon in Maryland. Visit MintMobile.com/everytown and get 3 months of unlimited wireless for just $15 a month at mintmobile.com/everytown 👀 Watch This Episode On Youtube: https://youtu.be/s9L2T3uPcRs 👁 Check out our movie AN ANGRY BOY for FREE! ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvtlOlODQ8g&t=5238s⁠ ⁠https://tubitv.com/movies/100029672/an-angry-boy⁠ International & Other Ways To Watch: ⁠https://www.anangryboy.com/⁠ 💀 MERCH: https://scary-mysteries-merch.dashery.com/ 💀 Scary Mysteries SECRET VAULT: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries⁠   🎧 Our Other Podcast Scary Mysteries: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/3ZooEZMoZ421WdsOVJhVkT⁠ 👁 X: ⁠https://x.com/ScaryMysteries1⁠ 👁Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/andrew.fitzg⁠ 👁 TikTok: ⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewfitzgerald⁠ 👁Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/scarymysteriesofficial⁠ 👁 X: ⁠https://x.com/ScaryMysteries1⁠   🗣 Business Inquiries, questions and comments hit us up at ⁠[e-mail]⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you ready to dive into the unknown? Join me, Peyton Moreland, on Into the Dark, the true crime podcast from Ono Media with a hint of horror and mystery. Each week, I dive into a different case, breaking down the facts and pondering the age-old question, why do people do what they do? Now, sometimes the answer isn't so clear, and that's why I'll also explore conspiracy theories, hauntings, and all things spooky. From the Green River Killer to the Mothman incident, we will unravel all of the questions that keep us up at night. So don't miss out. Subscribe now on your favorite podcast platform.

New episodes drop every Wednesday. Into the dark, where true crime meets the eerie unknown. Every town has a dark side. In Bethesda, Maryland, an upscale shopping district where luxury boutiques and tech stores line the streets, well, crime feels like a world away. But on a March morning back in 2011, inside a trendy yoga apparel store, police walked into a crime scene so brutal it was hard to comprehend. At first, it looked like a robbery gone wrong, but the deeper investigators dug the clearer it became. This wasn't random.

And what unfolded inside those walls was something far more deliberate and far more disturbing. Hey guys, it's Andrew. Welcome back to Everytown. Today, we're diving into a shocking act of violence and the unsettling cover-up that came right after. So, let's head down to the old line state and dive into the Lulu Lemon murder. It was the morning of March 12, 2011, when store manager Rachel Ortley arrived to open the Lulu Lemon Athletica and Bethesda. Everything up to that point had been routine until she reached for the front door. It was unlocked.

In a luxury shop in one of the wealthiest shopping districts in the D.C. area, well, that meant one of two things. Somebody had either seriously messed up or something terrible had happened. Rachel pushed the door open and stepped inside. At first glance, the store looked normal, but as her eyes adjusted, she noticed signs of chaos. A clothing rack was toppled, and shirts littered the floor out back, torn from their hangers. merchandise was scattered like a storm had blown through. Her stomach dropped, and she bolted back outside to call 911. That's when she noticed Ryan, a man waiting in line for the brand new iPad at the Apple store next door. He'd been standing there for over an hour, hadn't seen a single person go in or out of Lulu Lemon. When Rachel explained what she'd found, Ryan offered to go inside with her to take a look around.

and together they stepped back into the store. The cash registers were open and emptied. Receipts littered the counters and floor, as if someone had mistaken them for cash and discarded them in frustration. And then, the blood. We're not talking just a few droplets. Trails, smears, footprints. Evidence that someone had been dragged.

Prince led into different rooms, and some ended abruptly at a sink as if the killer had washed off. On one wall a bloody handprint marked where someone had tried and failed to push themselves up. Just called 911 to come and there's two dead people in the back of my store. There's a woman that's alive and she's breathing. She's tied up. One person seems dead and the other person is breathing. Jana Murray, based down in a pool of blood, a rope tied around her neck.

She was already gone. Then came something unexpected. The sound of breathing, faint and ragged, coming from the employee bathroom. Inside there, Ryan found Brittany Norwood, barely conscious, zip ties binding her wrists above her head and her ankles together. She was smeared with blood and her skin marked with cut. A Lulu Lemon headband was knotted around her neck. Within minutes, the store was swarming with police and paramedics, half rushed to free Brittany, cutting her restraints and tending to her wounds, and the other half

turned to Jana. But there was nothing to be done. It looked like a nightmare come true. One woman slaughtered, another barely alive. To everybody watching, it appeared that Brittany Norwood was lucky to have survived a brutal attack by masked intruders, but the truth was far darker. And what looked like random violence was actually something else entirely. If you're still overpaying, paying for wireless, it's time to say yes to saying no. That meant mobile. Their favorite word is no. No contracts, no monthly bills, no overages, no hidden fees, no BS. I switched because my old carrier kept sneaking in fees and my bill was ridiculous. And now I'm paying just $15 a month and getting better service. So you should too.

With Mint, plans start at $15 a month and every plan includes high speed data plus unlimited and text on the nation's largest 5G network. Keep the phone you already love, bring your number and all your contacts move with you. Set up took me a few minutes and I was saving real money immediately, like cutting my bill by more than half compared to my old provider without sacrificing coverage or speed. Ready to say yes to saying no? Make the switch at mintmobile.com slash everytown. That's mintmobile.com slash everytown.

Up front payment of $45 required, equivalent to $15 a month. Limited time, new customer offer for first three months only. Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited plant. Taxes and fees extra. Seamint Mobile for details. To really understand how this whole story spiraled into horror, we have to start with the two young women at the center of it all. Dana Murray, a rising star with everything ahead of her,

and Brittany Norwood. a woman whose hidden secrets were about to shatter both of their lives. Jana was born on November 22nd, 1980, down in Texas, and from the start, she always stood out. Her family called her smile megawatt, the kind of grin that was genuinely infectious. She was the rare type who seemed to have it all, smart without being arrogant, athletic without being obsessive,

and ambitious without stepping on anyone to get ahead. But Jaina wasn't just about success. She was about living. While most kids only talked about wanting to travel, Jaina actually did it. By her 20s, she had already set foot on nearly every continent with only Antarctica left on her list. She studied abroad in Spain and beyond,

hungry to learn, and excited to experience what the world had to offer. Eventually her journey led her to Washington, D.C., where she enrolled at John Hopkins University, where she was chasing two degrees, business and communications, with plans for an MBA that would put her exactly where she wanted to be. She networked, went to seminars, pushed herself, and thrived. And then there was Frazier, the boyfriend, who seemed like her perfect match.

Friends described them as the couple that made you believe in love. What Jana didn't know is that Frazier had already started shopping for an engagement ring, planning a future that was just weeks away from becoming reality. To help pay her way, Jaina took a job at Lou Lemon. On the surface, it was just a retail gig, but for Jaina, it fit better than a pair of their leggings. The brand's focus on wellness and active living matched her own philosophy, so she didn't just work there. She believed in what it stood for.

Co-workers loved her energy and her willingness to help in the way she made even the boring shifts easier. Management notice too, promoting her to supervisor and handing her a key to the store. By early 2011, everything was aligning. Her MBA nearly complete, a loving relationship with her boyfriend, a promising career path, was the kind of life people dream about. But in this life, sometimes no matter how hard you work and plan, you can cross paths with the wrong person and there's nothing you can do about it. When Jaina's path was about to collide with someone else's, someone whose life was built on lies and desperation.

That someone was Brittany. Norwood joined the Bethesda Lulu Lemon store in early February of 2011, just six weeks before the murder. She was hired as a part-time sales associate, the same kind of entry-level role Jaina had once started in before quickly rising through the ranks. At first glance, Brittany seemed like a perfect fit for the Lulu Lemon culture. She was born on May 19th of 1982 in Seattle into what most would call an ideal family.

One of nine children, she grew up in a household centered around education, discipline, and support. Her parents were well educated. Her father ran his own business and the family had enough means to provide opportunities for all nine kids. And like Jaina, Brittany did pretty well in school. She was small in stature, but strong and athletic, with a particular love for soccer. And she was good enough to play Division I at Stony Brook University in New York, an achievement she was proud of. Her dream was to become a personal trainer and eventually open her own gym.

For her, Lulu Lemon felt like a stepping stone, a way to blend her passion for fitness while gathering more. experience in the business side of things. As her supervisor, Jaina helped train Britney, showing her the ropes and guiding her through those first weeks. To anyone watching, there was no tension or friction or warning signs. The two seemed to get along just fine. The appearances are deceiving. While coworkers saw the version of Brittany, she wanted them to see, they had no idea about the troubling pattern of behavior that had been following her for years. Secrets that would soon come to the surface in the most violent way imaginable.

The first cracks in Brittany's image showed up back in her college soccer days. She had the talent to make the D1 team, a big deal, but soon after she joined, teammates, started noticing things disappearing from the locker room. At first it was small, almost forgettable. A tubal lip gloss here, a $10 bill there, a pair of earrings, someone thought they'd misplaced. But soon the pattern became too obvious to meet. miss. Items only vanished whenever Brittany was around. When the team finally confronted her, the girl broke down in tears. She admitted to stealing, apologized, promised it would never happen

again. Some teammates wanted to believe her and give her another chance, but trust like that once broken is hard to repair, especially in team sports where everyone is supposed to work together as a unit with a common goal. And Brittany had made herself the ugly duckling and slowly she was pushed out, left off the field, left out of social circles, until she eventually just quit. And for someone who had built her identity around being an athlete, losing her place on the team was devastating. It should have been a wake-up call, but it wasn't. The behavior followed her. Brittany had actually worked at another Lulu Lemon store before Bethesda, and guess what she was fired for. As Britney starts, that's when they start having all these incidents of shoplifting.

Items are disappearing, cash is disappearing. And she's like the only new person. So they all suspected her of stealing, but they could never prove it. The pattern never changed, though. Steal, get caught, cry, apologize, promise to do better and then move on and do it again. It wasn't about money. I mean, her family was well off, and she had to act. access to employee discounts.

For Brittany, the theft seemed to come from somewhere else. The rush of getting away with it or a compulsion she couldn't control. But in February 2011, none of her co-workers knew any of this. To them, she was just another new hire trying to make a good impression. And Jaina, always eager to welcome new employees, went out of her way to help Brittany settle in. The two works side by side, opening and closing the store together, dealing with cuff. customers, stocking merchandise. But Brittany couldn't keep her sticky little fingers to herself, and per usual, started to steal again just like always. Only this time, someone was about to notice,

not someone was Jaina. March 11, 2011, a Friday night at the bustling Bethesda Row Shopping Center. The Lulu Lemon store had been packed with weekend shoppers, stocking up on their high-end workout gear. By closing time, only two employees remained in sign, Jaina and Brittany. Now closing shifts followed a familiar rhythm, cleaning up, restocking shelves, counting the register, and finally, the mandatory bag checks. At Lulu Lemon, every employee, from the newest hire to the store manager, had their bags checked before leaving. It wasn't optional, and it wasn't personal. It was routine. But that night when Jaina looked inside Brittany's bag, routine turned into a confrontation.

Tucked away, it was a pair of Lulu Lemon leggings that hadn't been paid for. And for those unfamiliar Lulu Lemon leggings don't come cheap, 100 to 140 bucks a pair. And finding them hidden in an employee's bag was a serious violation, kind of discovery that could end a career. And Jaina liked Brittany, had trained her and probably wanted to give her. the benefit of the doubt, but as supervisor, she also had a responsibility to the store and the rest of the staff who played by the rules. And she was put in a bad spot. In the end, there was really only one thing she could do. The store's alarms record showed both women left at 9.45 p.m. Six minutes later at 9.51, Jena phoned the store manager to report what she'd

found. She called me at 946. She asked me, did I say, She was like because my back checked Britney, she still had the tag sign. The manager told her they'd handle it in the morning. And Jana hung up, unaware that she had just set events in motion that would end with her death. And for Brittany, that moment was devastating. And she had already been fired from the other location for stealing. Getting caught again wasn't just embarrassing. It threatened everything.

Her dream of becoming a personal trainer of opening her own gym. of building a life around fitness and health, all of it could vanish with a single theft report. And who would hire her if she became known as a repeat thief, who would ever trust her. And in Brittany's mind, she couldn't let that happen. At 10.05 p.m., just 20 minutes after the store alarm had been set, it was turned off again,

and someone with keys had come back to the store. And Brittany had called Jaina with a story about needing to get something she'd left behind, And Jaina, being the helpful person she was, agreed to drive back and let Brittany into the store. Prosecutors say that Brittany Norwood lured Jana Murray back to the store after they closed... The next thing that happened took investigators weeks to figure out, but when they did, they discovered that the young woman they had first seen as a victim was actually capable of something far more horrible than anyone could have imagined. At some point, after Jena opened that store back up, Brittany snapped. The attack started in the front of the store, but moved to the back rooms. Jana tried to run away, anywhere to seek safety, so she bolted to the back area where there was a fire exit, but she couldn't get away in time.

She had actually gotten the key into that lock, but before she could turn it, Brittany caught up to her. Investigators would later find that key, still there, blood on the door handle as well. It's hard to know exactly what went down in what order, because in the end, Jaina suffered at least 331 separate wounds. At least five weapons were used, according to the medical examiner. A knife, hammer, wrench, box cutters, a rope around her neck. Marie was alive throughout all of this until the last strike of a knife. In the Apple Store employees next door who were closing up shop heard some commotion,

next door, but they just thought it was an argument between coworkers. Closer to the wall. Okay. What are they saying? So it was two female. One was, it talked to her like, what's girl eventually? Did you ever hear any other horses or just the two female? Jane's body had several defensive wounds on her hands and arms that showed she had trying to protect

herself. There were actually clumps of her own hair clenched in her hands, either from trying to shield her head, or from Brittany dragging her around the store by her hair. The forensic doctor discovered that the real wound that killed her was a stab wound to the back of her neck that cut through her spinal cord. That means that she likely been alive for the majority of the attack before that. When it was finally over in that shopping center late at night, silence washed over the Lulu Lemon store.

Brittany stood in the back room surrounded by what she had done, and Jane's blood was everywhere. pulled on the floor, spattered on the walls, and tracked through multiple rooms. And Brittany had to figure out how to make this all go away. And she pulled it off before with those crocodile tears whenever she got caught stealing, so even though this was significantly more serious than that, maybe she could pull it off again. Really, what other choice did she have but to try?

She needed to breathe for a moment, so for the next hour and a half, Brittany sat in Janice car outside, planning the most elaborate lie of her life. When she figured it out, she went back into the store and started staging the scene. She emptied the cash registers, scattered merchandise around, and put on men-sized 14 shoes to track footprints around the place in Janah's blood. This way, it wasn't her who did the killing. It was some masked men who came in and attacked. Then she started working on herself because she couldn't have walked away unscathed if her co-worker faced such violence.

She took a knife and sliced into her own forehead, making sure it would bleed enough to look serious but not enough to be dangerous. Then she slashed her arms and legs with box cutters, being careful to avoid any major blood vessels. She also tied a Lulu Lemon headband around her own neck and cut holes in her own leggings. Finally, she zipped tied her own hands above her head and her ankles together, lay down on the bathroom floor, and just waited. The next morning, the store manager, Rachel, arrived to open up the store. She noticed the front door unlocked, merchandise scattered, and quickly realized something was wrong, and when she and another employee entered, they discovered the horrific scene. Janeh's body in the back room

and Brittany bound on the floor pretending to be a victim. When police arrived, sure enough, Brittany turned on the waterworks as she had done so many times before. She recounted the whole horrifying ordeal about two masked men who had attacked both women,

essayed them, and killed Jaina while sparing Brittany because she was quote unquote, more fun. And for a few days, the lie held. Detectives Canvass, the area for two masked men who didn't exist while the real killer lay in a hospital bed, receiving sympathy and support for the trauma she had supposedly endured. But physical evidence doesn't lie, and soon the cracks in Brittany's story began to show.

First, the footprints. We had bloody shoeprints throughout the store that never left the store. We had zip ties that were in the store that were used on the victims, as if somebody knew that they would be there. If two masked men had really been there, as she claimed, well, there should have been multiple sets of men's prints, but it was only the one. It looked like the second man, whoever he was, must have floated around the store. And second, the injuries. And Jana's wounds were utterly catastrophic, the result of a prolonged and frenzied attack, something that was fueled by rage and not random violence.

Brittany's wounds, by contrast, were shallow. controlled, the kind you get if say you were to, you know, inflict them on yourself. And then there was Jane's car. By this time, we found Jane's car, and we knew that the car was moved, and we knew there was blood in it, like on the gear shift, on the steering wheel. It's just a lot of weird stuff. And she tried to explain it away as the men forcing her to move it, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense.

The timeline didn't fit, and... Neither did the logic of her story. And so, from that, the lie unraveled pretty quickly. On March 18th, exactly one week after Jaina Murray's murder, Brittany was arrested and charged. Tonight we arrested Britney Norwood, age 27, the murder of Jena Murray. His Norwood was in the story, and his woman originally thought to be a surviving victim.

Police say, Norwood attempted to cover up the murder by pretending they were both beaten and set during a robbery. Her trial began that November and lasted just six days. The evidence was overwhelming. Even Brittany's own defense team didn't bother denying she killed Jana. Instead, they tried to spin it as a fight that simply got out of control. A prosecutor has laid out every detail that proved this was no accident. The theft that sparked it and the calculated staging afterwards.

The 90 minutes, Brittany sat in Jane's car crafting a cover story. Those self-inflicted wounds, the hours she spent lying on that bathroom floor, rehearsing her role as the survivor. Every part of it spoke to planning, manipulation, and cold intent. In the end, the jury saw through her performance this time. Brittany Norwood was found guilty of first-degree murder. The judge then sentenced her to life in prison without the full. possibility of parole. Today, Norwood is 43 years old, locked away at the Maryland Correctional Institution for women, where she will remain for the rest of her life.

And Jane Amari, the woman she brutally stole from the world, will never grow older or finish her degree, never marry the man who was preparing to propose. Her future was ripped away in one of the most savage and senseless crimes Bethesda has ever seen. And that's the true legacy of this case. Not just the shocking brutality and just the lies, but the reminder that sometimes the darkest evil doesn't come from strangers in the night. Sometimes it comes from the person working right beside you. And so that's a wrap on today's episode of Everytown.

Thank you so much for tuning in. If you want more from us, check out our exclusive secret vault of episodes over on patreon.com slash scary mysteries. We have multiple curated selections for you to choose from to scratch every true crime itch you might have. Remember to come on back next week, same place, same time, for another episode of Every Town, filled strange and mysterious stories,

because you never know. Maybe your town will be next.