[ O V E R V I E W ]

The case I have picked for today will be a 2 parter. Next Sunday will be part 2. I mean just part one took 13 pages of my notebook. So I figured it would be better for me to break it up into two parts.

Thia case is relatively unknown, which shocks me just because if the brutality of it. Most people have no idea it happened.

I don't want to give out any extra details of this case in the overview but I do wanna talk about what Lululemon is and where this store was located.

Lululemon is a clothing store who specializes in womens athletic wear. They do make clothes for girl and men, as well as accessories, but their main thing is womens athletics. It's also a very high end brand. While looking at their website I was looking at their clothing and the prices are absolutely ridiculous. There is a parka that costs $698 US. The most expensive leggings are $158 US. Tye cheapest leggings are $59 US but that's only because they are on sale. Originally they are $88.

Lululemon was also recently in the news because their art director promoted a "Bat Fried Rice" sweatshirt or shirt. So there's that. But that has nothing to do with the case, but if you thought the name sounded familiar this was probably the reason.

Now this particular Lululemon store is located in Bethesda, Maine. It's on a little shopping row where there are a bunch of stores lined up next to another. Right next to it is an electronic store, Apple, which is very important.

[ FINDING JAYNA AND BRITTANY ]

On March 12, 2011, the manger of this Lululemon store, Rachel got to the store around 8 am in order to open it like she always did. When she got there the door was already unlocked, but she figured Jayna had just forgotten to lock the door and would deal with it later.

When she walked in she saw a few things knocked over or out of place, but the store wasn't really ransacked. But this was enough ti freak her out and think maybe a robbery happened so she ran outside in order to call 911.

Now the Apple store had just received the brand new iPad of that time and it was set to drop that day. So there was a huge crowd outside the Apple store with people just waiting until the store was open. One person from the crowd, a man named Ryan, saw Rachel run out of the store so he went to check on her.

She explained the situation to both him and 911. Ryan told her that he had been outside the store for about 2 hours and saw no one come or go from that store. Ryan also offered to go inside with Rachel to see if anything was stolen.

The further they walk in the more things they noticed. More stuff was kocked over. Clothes were scattered on the floor. The cash registers were open and cleaned out, as were the safes.

They both walk into the main back room and it was a mess. There was shattered glass covering the floor and items were knocked over and broken. They also found a lot of blood. They saw a trail of blood, hand swipes on the wall as well as shoe impressions in blood.

Rachel is still on the phone with 911 at this point. Ryan decides to follow the trail of blood but Rachel, obviously freaked out, stays where she is. Following the trail of blood he found a body face down in a pool of blood. He assumed it was a girl as they had long hair and since it was a Lululemon store, most employees are women anyway. He also noticed a rope tied around her neck.

Ryan went to return to Rachel when he heard a noise coming from another room. He followed the noise to the employee bathroom and found another body. She was laying on her back, covered in blood. Her shirt was pulled up over her stomach, but not her breasts. Her leggings were cut in the crotch area. Her hands were also zip tied above her head. Ryan assumed she was dead as well but then realized she was still breathing.

Ryan reported back to Rachel and she immediately knew who these two women were as there were only 2 closing employees the night before.

The one in the bathroom, alive, was 28 year old Brittany Norwood.

The one in the backroom, dead, was 30 year old Jayna Murray.

Police and ambulance rushed to the scene.

I'm the bathroom they found a big rock that they believed caused an injury to Brittany's head.

On Jayna's body was a tool box that had multiple tools in it that were covered in blood. Hammers, wrenches, and box cutters had the most blood on them.

They found 2 sets of shoeprints. One was a womans size 5 and the other was a man's size 14. The bigger shoe prints lead to the kitchen in the back but just stopped.

They found blood leading to the back fire exit door and there was blood on the handle, but there was no blood outside. Also, this door needed a key in order to be opened or else an alarm would go off. The key was inserted into the keyhole.

They rushed Brittany to the hospital because they were not sure how serious her condition was. They just knew she was covered in blood and was alive. However, when they got her to the hospital they found out her wounds were superficial, meaning she wasn't cut that deep. If her wounds only 2 needed to be looked at. Because her injuries were not bad, police were able to question her that day about what happened. We will get into her retelling of what happened in a moment. First, let's talk about Jayna's autopsy.

[ AUTOPSY ]

During the autopsy they were able to count 331 stab wounds. Now there is only so much space on a human body, especially when that body is of a pretty small female. So it's believed she was stabbed more but they may have overlapped one another. So 331 is the minimum amount but may not necessarily be the maximum amount.

Of those 331 wounds, 200 of those were on her face and neck

She had 13 different skull fractures and part of her skull was actually carved in.

She had 5 different wound patterns so at least 5 different objects were used on her.

The coroner also believes she was alive for most of it. She may not have been conscious for the entire thing, but she was alive for most of it.

The cause of death is listed at a stab wound to the back of her neck that severed her spinal cord.

[ BRITTANYS STORY ]

As stated before, because her injuries were not severe, police were able to question her the same day.

Brittany said that they two closed up like normal. They cleaned the store and locked up. Jayna got in her car and left while Brittany walked to the metro station. She got to the station when she realized she had forgotten her metro card. Without it she couldn't get on the bus.

Brittany called Jayna to ask her to meet her at the store so she could unlock the store so she could grab her card. She said Jayna forgot her laptop at the store as well she she didn't mind turning around. Since Jayna was the closing manager she was the only other one with keys to the store besides the opening manager.

Brittany said she waited outside the store for Jayna. When she pulled in she illegally parked in front of the store since they were only going to be in a few minutes.

Brittany stated they didn't turn on any lights or lock the door cause they didnt expect to be there for long. But they couldn't find her metro card so Jayna offered to let her borrow hers so she could get home, especially since she would be driving anyway. Brittany agreed and they went to leave.

When the got back to the front they noticed the doors wide open, which isn't how they left them.

Two men jumped out of the clothes rack to grab Jayna. Brittany said she was a few steps behind Jayna so they only noticed Jayna at first. They were wearing all black and had ski masks

There were two guys. One bigger guy (around 6 feet) and a smaller guy (around 5 foot 3 to 5 foot 5). The smaller guy noticed Brittany and let go of Jayna in order to grab Brittany.

The bigger guy hit Jayna in the back of the head, knocking her to the floor. He then dragged her to the back by her hair.

The smaller guy pulled Brittany to the cash registers and ordered her to empty them out, along with the safes and put in his bag. Afterwards he dragged her to the back as well, but to a different room so she never saw Jayna or the bigger guy.

He ziptied her hands and legs before he started punching and cutting her. She also said he was yelling racial slurs towards her, leading her to believe he was white.

He then cut open her leggings and raped her. After he got done he got up, leaving her there. A few minutes later he came back with a clothes hanger and started to sexually assault her with it.

She was dragged to the same room as the bigger guy and Jayna and thrown on top of her body. The guys told her they was going to spare her life because "she was more fun to fuck." They then dragged her to the employee bathroom where she was eventually found.

[ INVESTIGATION PART ONE ]

Th first thing police wanted to do was check cameras. Unfortunately the only store on the entire block that had cameras was the Apple store. But they checked them anyway. On the footage they saw two men; one taller and one shorter. They were wearing all black and were walking the row around the time the attacks happened.

News station broke about the murder and assault, as well as the two suspects. This caused panic in the usually quiet community. People were terrified that something like this was going to happen again. The profit sales dropped by 50% on this block after it happened and sales for non-lethal self defense things, such as pepper spray, went up tremendously.

Police started questioning people around the store while this happened to see if they saw anything. They started with the Apple store. The asked the closing employee from that night if they heard anything, to which she admitted she had.

She said she heard what sounded like "screaming, squealing and a lot of banging," but originally figured it might have been kids outside because they tend to play like that. But she said she soon heard it, clearly, no matter where she was at in the store. She even went to the back room and could hear it.

She then heard "high pitched screaming mixed with low pitched grunting and dragging sounds as if something heavy was being moved."

She also heard 2 female voices. One saying "Please don't do this. Just talk to me." The other one saying "God help me. Please God help me."

She stated she went to the security officer so he could listen as well. He put his ear up to the wall and heard it as well. He then banged on their side of the wall, to which it became silent in the next store.

Not once did they go over to see if everything was okay or call the police.

Police had Rachel log onto the alarm system to find out when the alarm was turned on and off. The alarm was set at 9:45 PM, so that's when Jayna and Brittany left. The alarm was deactivated at 10:05 PM, when Jayna arrived back at the store so her and Brittany could go in to grab their things. The employee said it got quiet again at around 10:15 PM. Meaning the attack happened between 10:05 and 10:15.

Police realized they had no idea where Jayna's car was. They figured maybe the attackers stole her car since it wasn't in front of the store. They thought if they found the car maybe they could find the killers as well. At the station a picture of Jayna's car was issued to every police officer. That's when one officer, who was patrolling the area, said he saw her car.

He stated that around midnight he saw the car in a parking lot just a few blocks away from the store. The lights were on and he saw someone in the passenger seat. Around 2 am he passed the parking lot again and the car was still there, but the lights were off and no one was around.

He remembered the location and went back. The car was luckily still there. They impounded it and took it for forensic testing, although it wouldn't be done for a few days.

The leading detective, Detective Reuben, had decided to focus on what they did have. The video tape. Because of the angle of the camera there was no way to tell if they entered the Lululemon store.

2 days after the attack Detective Reuben decided to steakout the store. The chances of them returning were slim in his eyes, but he decided to do it anyway. Around 10 PM he saw two men, wearing all black, walking the same way as the men in the video.

Detective Reuben had stopped the men and showed them a still from the video camera. They two men admitted that it was them but they had an explanation. The two were waiters at a restaurant just down the road. They walk together in this direction because it's where they live.

Police were now back to square one and felt pretty defeated since their biggest lead was a dead end. So they made an appeal to the public to help them solve the case. If they knew anything they should immediately call them.

The one name that kept popping up was of a man named Keith. Keith was a homeless man who had a violet reputation, especially towards women. Police believed that the size 14 shoe with blood at the scene could have been his. But Keith wasn't anywhere to be found. As he was homeless it wasn't easy to track him down.

Detective Reuben was at Home Depot, just to do shopping and he wasnt on duty at the time, when an employee asked how the case was going. He told the detective that he saw Keith with another guy, a much smaller guy the day of the murders and they were wearing all black.

Detective Reuben thought that was interesting as Keith had no friends. He was very unfriendly with others. So to know Keith had a friend, one smaller than him as well, it made the Detective think.

Keith did turn up at a hospital 10 miles away. He had a few injuries and was bloody, including dried blood. Keith was wanted on a different charge so after he was released he was arrested on that charge. Police asked him about the blood and Keith told them that he had gotten into a fight with another homeless man.

The more Keith talked the more police doubted he had committed the murder and assault. But they took his clothes for forensic testing anyway, just in case. But it would be a few days before the got anything back.

During the wait time detectives decided to look back through the case, see if there was anything they could do. That's when they noticed a few things that didnt seem to add up. Little things that didnt make sense but they overlooked at the beginning because they were just trying to get justice for Jayna and Brittany as fast as possible.

[ PART 2 IN ONE WEEK ]

Part 2 of this case will be up next week.

If you are unfamiliar with this case, what do you think about it?

[ IMAGES FROM CRIME SCENE ]

*intense images ahead. I will not show Jayna's body though*

UV to show blood in the sink