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Transcript

A Little Less Mess: Lululemon Murder [Maryland] · Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, Welcome to Bless This Mess and the true
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: crime podcast. I'm Kara, Jess Kara. Welcome to A Little
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Less Mess, the many episodes where we dive straight into
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  Speaker 1: a compelling true crime case that you can finish on
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  Speaker 1: your commute, on your walk, or why you're folding laundry. Normally,
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  Speaker 1: on our main episodes, we focus strictly on crimes in
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  Speaker 1: the South, but for these shorter episodes, we are venturing out.
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  Speaker 1: So today we are heading to Bethesda, Maryland, to a wealthy,
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  Speaker 1: bustling shopping district just outside of Washington, DC. This case
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  Speaker 1: is infamous. It is a story of theft, brutal violence,
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  Speaker 1: and one of the most elaborate, disturbing cover ups in
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  Speaker 1: recent true crime history. It is widely known as the
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Lulu Limen Murder. Before we jump in, remember you can
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  Speaker 1: get our main Thursday episodes early in ad free, plus
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: our Friday Sitting, Sippin' and Bullshitting' show by joining our Patreon.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Come hang out with us over on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram,
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  Speaker 1: and YouTube, and always please rate, review and subscribe to
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: help keep the porch light on. All right, pour your
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  Speaker 1: morning coffee, pull up a chair, and let's get straight
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  Speaker 1: into it. It was the morning of Saturday, March twelfth,
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  Speaker 1: twenty eleven, in Bethesda, Maryland. The manager of a popular
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  Speaker 1: Lululemon Athletica store arrived around eight am to unlock the
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  Speaker 1: doors and prep the store for the day. When she
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  Speaker 1: walked inside, she was met with an absolute blood bath.
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  Speaker 1: In the back hallway, she found the body of thirty
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  Speaker 1: year old Jana Murray. Jana was a bright, beloved employee
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  Speaker 1: who had been working the closing shift the night before.
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  Speaker 1: She was lying in a massive pull of blood, dead
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  Speaker 1: with the ligature tied around her neck. Further back, in
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  Speaker 1: the store's bath room, the manager found another employee, twenty
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  Speaker 1: nine year old Brittany Norwood. Brittany was alive, but her
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  Speaker 1: wrist and ankles were bound with zip ties and she
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  Speaker 1: had superficial cuts on her body. The manager immediately called
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  Speaker 1: nine one one. First responders rushed in, secured the scene
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  Speaker 1: and began treating Britney. As police started questioning her, Brittany
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  Speaker 1: wove a terrifying tale of what had happened the night before.
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  Speaker 1: According to Britney Norwood, she and Jana had closed the
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  Speaker 1: store normally around nine forty five pm on that Friday night,
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  Speaker 1: they locked up and parted ways. However, Brittany told police
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  Speaker 1: that she realized she had left her wallet inside the store.
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  Speaker 1: She called Jana, who had a set of keys, and
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  Speaker 1: asked if she could come back and let her in.
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  Speaker 1: Brittany claimed that when they unlocked the door and went
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  Speaker 1: back inside, two men wearing black ski mask slipped in
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  Speaker 1: behind them. She told investigators a horrific story. She said
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  Speaker 1: the masked men brutally beat and sexually assaulted both of them.
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  Speaker 1: She claimed that Jana fought back fiercely against the attackers,
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  Speaker 1: and because she fought back, the men murdered her. Brittany
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  Speaker 1: said she was forced to listen to her coworker die
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  Speaker 1: before the men tied her up in the bathroom and
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  Speaker 1: fled the scene. The community of Bethesda was completely terrified.
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  Speaker 1: Police immediately launched a massive manhunt for these two masked killers,
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  Speaker 1: who were supposedly prowling a wealthy shopping district. They set
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  Speaker 1: up a tip line and poured resources into finding the men.
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  Speaker 1: But as the days went on, investigators started looking closely
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  Speaker 1: at the crime scene and the physical evidence was telling
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  Speaker 1: a very very different story. The first major red flag
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  Speaker 1: came from the medical examiner. Despite Britney's harrowing claims, there
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  Speaker 1: was absolutely zero physical evidence that either woman had been
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  Speaker 1: sexually assaulted. Then, investigators looked at the footprints in the blood.
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  Speaker 1: In a brutal, bloody attack committed by two men, there
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  Speaker 1: should have been multiple sets of footprints tracking all over
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  Speaker 1: the store, but police only found two sets. One set
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  Speaker 1: matched Brittany nor Would shoes. The other belonged to a
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  Speaker 1: size fourteen men's shoe. Here's where Britney's story completely fell apart.
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  Speaker 1: Police found that exact pair of size fourteen men's shoes
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  Speaker 1: inside the Lulu Limon's store. They were display shoes. Investigators
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  Speaker 1: theorized that someone had put the oversized shoes on their
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  Speaker 1: own feet and intentionally walked through the blood to plant
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  Speaker 1: fake footprints and throw police off the trail. Furthermore, they
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  Speaker 1: found Jana's car parked a few blocks away, and inside
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  Speaker 1: it they found Jana's blood, but Brittany had c The
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: men attacked them inside the store and left. Why would
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  Speaker 1: the killers move Jana's car? Police brought Brittany Norwood back
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  Speaker 1: in for questioning. They pressed her on the inconsistencies. They
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  Speaker 1: pushed her on the bloody footprints. On March eighteenth, twenty eleven,
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  Speaker 1: exactly one week after the murder, the Bethesda community got
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  Speaker 1: the shock of a lifetime. The police announced that they
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  Speaker 1: had made an arrest. They weren't looking for two masked men,
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  Speaker 1: though they arrested the surviving victim. They charged Brittany Norwood
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  Speaker 1: with first degree murder of Jana Murray. So what actually
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  Speaker 1: happened that night? The prosecution laid out a chilling sequence
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  Speaker 1: of events during Britney's trial. The motive, shockingly, was over
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  Speaker 1: a pair of yoga pants. Earlier that Friday, store management
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  Speaker 1: suspected that Brittany might be stealing merchandise. Jana, acting as
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  Speaker 1: a manager that night, was pass with checking Britney's bag
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  Speaker 1: before they left. When Jana checked that bag, she allegedly
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  Speaker 1: found a stolen pair of Lululemon leggings. Prosecutors believe Jana
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  Speaker 1: confronted Brittany about the theft. Brittany, realizing she was about
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  Speaker 1: to lose her job and face criminal charges, snapped. When
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  Speaker 1: they went back into the store that night, there were
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  Speaker 1: no massmen. It was just Jana and Brittany. The attack
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  Speaker 1: on Jana was one of the most savage, brutal beatings
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  Speaker 1: the state of Maryland had ever seen. Brittany used whatever
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  Speaker 1: she could find in the store's toolkit. The medical examiner
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  Speaker 1: testified that Jana suffered three hundred and thirty one distinct injuries.
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  Speaker 1: She was beaten with the hammer, slashed with the box cutter,
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  Speaker 1: stabbed with a knife, and bludgeoned with the metal merchandise.
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  Speaker 1: Peg fought for her life, but the fatal blow came
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  Speaker 1: when a knife severed her spinal cord. After murdering her coworker,
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  Speaker 1: Brittany spent hours staging the elaborate crime scene. She put
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  Speaker 1: on the size fourteen display shoes and tracked blood throughout
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  Speaker 1: the store. She drove Jana's car a few blocks away
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  Speaker 1: to make it look like the attackers had stolen it,
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  Speaker 1: and then walked back to the store. Finally, she inflicted
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  Speaker 1: superficial cuts on herself, zip tied her own ankles, tied
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  Speaker 1: her hands loosely enough to slip them out if needed,
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  Speaker 1: and waited in the bathroom to be rescued the next morning.
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  Speaker 1: The trial of Brittany Norwood was swift. The jury saw
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  Speaker 1: through the lies and the staged crime scene in less
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  Speaker 1: than one hour of deliberation. They found Britney Norwood guilty
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  Speaker 1: of first degree murder in January of twenty twelve. The
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  Speaker 1: judge sentenced her to life in prison without the possibility
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  Speaker 1: of Pearl, calling her one hell of a liar. She
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  Speaker 1: remains incarcerated at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women. Jana
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  Speaker 1: Murray was only thirty years old. She was a fiercely intelligent,
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  Speaker 1: kind woman who was just doing her job and her
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  Speaker 1: life was taken over an argument about stolen clothing. That's
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  Speaker 1: all I got for you today. Thank you for tuning
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: into this episode of a Little Less Mess. If you
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: want a deeper dive into Southern cases, or just some
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: porch side company, join stew and Me this Thursday for
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: our full length episodes where we head back down South.
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  Speaker 1: Now make sure you're subscribed on Apple podcast or Spotify
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: an episode until then. Stay safe, lock your doors, and
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: keep that porch site on by everyone. Don't you know
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  Speaker 1: it's bad luck to be superstitious. Find nothing else since
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  Speaker 1: working and my hand is really hurting and sick of
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  Speaker 1: it's worry bou I can't