This episode is brought to you by Me Undies. While Me Undies can't totally help your love life this Valentine's Day, they can offer you insanely comfy undies and lounge wear to buy or gift. Me Undies has so many awesome Valentine's Day prints and styles. Plus, you can match with your partner, friends, or even your pets. This Valentine's Day, give the gift that'll keep them thinking of you, and score huge sight-white savings at meundies.com/spotify. That's meundies.com/spotify. Meundies, comfort from the outside in. I have a question for you guys that I cannot answer myself because I haven't experienced this. I'd love to know your experience, whether it's from the beginning of this video, or maybe you post something in the end after you found out everything, but I just, you know, don't understand what this is like. What is it like growing up in a really, really large family? Our story today, this girl Brittany, she have four sisters and four brothers. I just think this is really interesting because all nine of the kids, most of them went on to be college-educated, not just that. They went on to be physicians, engineers, just a lot of really important roles. Brittany was also like an all-star soccer player. Her parents were always taking care of the big league trips and anything she needed to reach her goals. Something had to have happened to Brittany. Something must have been lost along the way. Maybe it was an outside experience in her life. Maybe it was something with the family because ultimately, Brittany did not become an engineer or a physician. She became a convicted murderer after she beat her coworker to death over 300 times. Welcome back to another week, another sinister. It's me, I'm your host, Bose. We are back to back with a couple of sinister's this month because we were gone for a while. So we have lots and lots of cases. But first, let's talk to our sponsor and then we're just going to roll right into the Brittany Norwood case. Thanks to this sponsor, I now have a sleep routine. I had no idea, I've needed one for years. And listen guys, a sleep routine is not just washing your face or brushing your teeth at night. That's the minimum, okay? A sleep routine is when you do a couple of nice, comfortable, cozy things that let your body know that it is time to go to bed. And one of my favorite right now is having a cup of bean. It's like a reverse cup of coffee, okay? It is a sleepy time hot chocolate. Well, they have other flavors, but the hot chocolate one is my personal favorite. You just put some water in the microwave and a mug and then you mix in your bean. They even give you the little mixer and whatnot. I make my little cup of sleepy time hot chocolate and then I can't believe I'm telling you my night routine, but it's new now and I love it. And then I put on a League of Legends video on my big screen and I just sit there and sit my chocolate and watch this stupid game until I get tired, turn off the TV and go to sleep. Like, I have actually really been loving it and I don't know what your sleep routine is going to be, but you gotta mix bean into it, okay? The other thing I love is I have trouble sleeping a lot of times and anytime I take like a sleep aid or something, I feel groggy the next day. Nope, not with bean, not with bean. Look, actually helps me fall asleep and then also doesn't make me feel like crap in the morning. I'm all in, baby. So, if you want to try Beams Dream Powder, you can and get a little discount with my code. You can get up to, up to depending on how you bundle it. 40% off with the code sinister, all you gotta do is go to shopbeam.com/cinnister. That's shopbeam.com/cinnister or you can just use the code sinister at checkout and hey, if you do, tell me your sleep routine. I like it, look, sleepy time hot chocolate, you can't go wrong with that. Brittany Norwood was born May 19th in 1982. She lived in a small town called Kent Washington and her parents were Earl and Larkita Norwood. Her parents ran an upholstery business. Apparently, the business must have been doing pretty well overall because they did have their bad years. But for the most part, Earl and Larkita were taking care of nine children. Now, I have a lot of thoughts on that because I'd be maxed out after two. But God bless them, God bless them for having the kids and also being able to take care of them. Their parents were really, really dedicated to the children because Earl would primarily run the business with Larkita doing a few things here and there. But her main job was staying at home and raising the kids. And Larkita raised some very, very ambitious children. There's not that much about Brittany's early years, but by the time she went to high school, she went to Decatur High School. And she was an all-star soccer girly. Brittany was not just, "Oh, she's on the soccer team," or, "Oh, I have soccer practice." No, no, no, no. She was good, she was dedicated, and she was highly competitive, not to mention skilled. She was so good that she got recognized by the Seattle Times in 1998 as like a superstar defender. They were like, "She is the moment." They later interviewed one of Brittany's coaches. It was a guy named Brian Van Blomstein and he said, "She could knock your fillings out." But she never carried it outside of the field. She was mild-mannered and had good grades. But on the field, she was tough. She was very competitive and she was here to win. But that's exactly what a team wants. So Brittany was really hailed for her skills and abilities as were all of her other siblings. I just really wanted to point this out because even after Brittany's arrest, she doesn't allude to a lot of issues in her childhood that we would generally deem as very traumatic and shifting. They talked to a lot of people and it was just like, "Yeah, she was a really intense soccer player." Super intense. So this is why I kind of was asking you guys, "Is there anything that can come up when a kid is in a home?" And they've got four brothers and four sisters. I don't know what that's like, so I ask you guys because I do not know exactly where Brittany Norwood's rage comes from. We'll talk about a couple more pieces through the way, but that's the question I'm thinking of. That's our question for this episode. And speaking of that mild-mannered kind of attitude, here's a quote that she wrote for her senior year. She said, "I hope to play soccer through my college years and someday play on the U.S. Women's Nationals team." Nice, very sweet response, but this is coming from somebody that the coach was saying, "Oh yeah, she'll knock your fillings out." Which, by the way, that is intense. Not Brittany will run up on you or she might kick you or you might get hit. Brittany will knock your fillings out. He witnessed this type of demeanor on the field. After she graduated in 2000, she went off to college like the rest of her siblings and she studied sociology. She went to Stony Brook State University in Long Island and she was living in New York. She was able to work on her sociology studies while still playing soccer. That is really important to her. You know, any kind of workouts or anything, that is her release. Everything's going well for a couple years until 2003 when Brittany was accused of stealing from students. And not just students, but her roommate and her teammates. This was happening pretty frequently and it must have been true because it ultimately led to the loss of Brittany's scholarship. To all of Brittany's peers, it seemed as though after this happened, she left college really abruptly. Just disappeared without a trace. But actually, she was asked to leave the college and they said, "Hey, we won't press any charges if you just head out and go quietly." The fact that Brittany could not stop stealing things from other people, even though it was getting her in trouble and taking away the one thing that she really cared about, soccer, is really interesting to me. So I called my friend that is a hardcore kleptomaniac and I asked her, "Hey, why are you always stealing shit?" Because I need to know and listen, that's kind of how this show operates. If I'm reading about something or an experience and I have experienced it myself and I can explain it, I will do that through my lens. But if I don't know, I'm gonna ask y'all or I'm gonna call somebody, I'm not gonna give up on the answer, but I'm not gonna act like I know. So anyways, I called a klepto for this case. And what she told me was really interesting. I'm sure people steal for a lot of different reasons, but this constant doing it struck me as kind of an addictive tendency. And when I spoke with my friend, she said that she can't help it. She said, "I don't know, it's just like if I see it and it's cool or I want it, I just take it." So to me, this kind of connects with an impulse kind of thing. Like maybe people that like to see a lot of stuff, like when you see it, you can't even like filter the good or bad. It's like a poor impulse control thing because this system has already been integrated into you. Now, what is the system? Another thing that I got from my friend, it seems as though if she is stressed or going through something, she's not always even aware that she's stressed or going through something, but she's been stealing stuff for years. So if she takes something, now the high is kind of in the object that she's just taken thinking about what she's gonna do with it, thinking about if she's gonna get caught or not, thinking about, "Oh, I have this thing now," or just fully focused on this now. And it has shifted her point of view. Now, if you're wondering, "Bose, why are you friends with the kleptomaniac?" I talked about this in detail on my podcast. I got nothing because I've known this girl for years. I've talked about this in detail over there, but yes, I had to reference a kleptomaniac to understand this a little bit better. Now, Brittany, it was very interesting. She was stealing minuscule amounts of money, sometimes nice products. She stole a Versace shirt from one friend, but sometimes she would just steal small objects, sometimes meaningful things from people, or things she didn't even need. If it was just there, Brittany might go through your bag and take it. So to me, for some reason, she is addicted to stealing. And also, I just want to say the hallmark of addiction is when you are doing something that brings you some type of relief or joy, but it's hurting your life on a regular basis, but you can't stop. So that's why I would classify this as an addiction. She lost what she cared about. Now, after she no longer had her scholarship, she gets a job at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel. This is a luxury hotel nearby where she lives, and she's working at the front desk. Now, mind you, she's no longer in Long Beach. She's gone back home, and this hotel is kind of in the, it's in the Washington, D.C. area. So, you know, she's meeting a lot of really important people. She's really putting on the charm, the charisma, and Brittany is a very pretty girl. So she quickly kind of gets ushered up into the world of doing the VIP work. Like, just if any really important people are coming into the fancy hotel, they're going to meet with Brittany first. She's their concierge. So she is used to excelling in school. She's used to excelling in sports. And now she gets a regular old job, and she's even excelling here. Laquita has done well to raise ambitious children. People that worked at the hotel said that Brittany was really like a light in the dark. They had a lot of really needy and rude hotel guests. You know, a lot of people coming in internationally that are super jet-lagged, or they're, you know, staying out of five stars, so they're really uppity. And she would always just come in with a positive demeanor and even spread that amongst the staff. One person actually recalled her saying, quote, don't let them ever get you down. Don't be sad. And she would just keep her head up. This was so important to this hotel staff. Remember that they remembered Brittany saying this even years later. People at the hotel, you know, really liked Brittany and they spoke highly of her. Until one day, Brittany just like quietly went away. You know, she didn't put in a two weeks notice. She didn't just up and quit. She just, you know, decided that she didn't want to work there anymore. And the hotel was like, okay, bye. That's what they said. A Willard spokesperson said that Brittany Norwood worked at the hotel and, quote, left on her own accord. We're going to go into Bo's conspiracy land for a second. Considering her school also was able to confirm that she was stealing from other people and they chose to let her leave on her own accord and leave quietly. I wonder if Brittany stopped stealing before she came to the hotel or if it happened all over again. This is really important to note because if Brittany once again excelled in her environment and then her addiction caused her to lose it all again, this would be very, very hard for her to come to terms with. It would probably in fact make her really angry that she just can't stop. Well, Brittany Norwood has now gone from being on the verge of her sociology degree, continuing to play soccer and possibly make it into the big leagues. To working at a luxury hotel and then now at 27, she ends up getting a job at Lulu Lemon. Now, this is a nice bit for her. This is a nice bit. If all of your siblings have their degree and you don't because you're a kleptomaniac and you really wanted to go, you know, be in the big leagues for soccer and you don't have that opportunity anymore because you're a kleptomaniac, mind you, her soccer career is over. That's all that matters to her. It's gone. She's upset about this. She has to be upset about this. Then she's working at this, you know, luxury, nice hotel. That's gone again, possibly because she's a kleptomaniac. Well, she's going to feel like she's at her rock bottom. But she gets this job at Lulu Lemon and you know what? This is a nice job. It's a nice job. She's just in a transitionary period. Now she's no longer in DC. Now she's in Bethesda, Maryland. And this Lulu Lemon in particular, it was in a place called Bethesda Row. It's kind of like a shopping center and it's an upscale shopping center. They've got like, they got a sweet greens. They have an equinox. They have an avita. They have the apple store. They have the dry bar, Warby Parker. These are like really nice kind of like upscale brands that you're going to see at a nice shopping center. So like to me, if you're an athletic girl, this is the dream job. While you're figuring it out, you know, Brittany gets to go in in the morning, grab her coffee, go to Lulu Lemon, go take a little break at Sweet Green. They have salads, you know, little mix and match salads. Talk to her, I don't know, yoga friends. I don't work out, okay? Talk to her yoga friends, go back to work, da da da da. And now she just needs to figure out a new path in life, right? I personally think at this point that the anger is really brewing in Brittany Norwood, but she puts on such a facade that she's a nice sweet girl. Hence why she's always getting promotion. She's supposed to, you know, interact with the VIP clients at the luxury hotel and everyone remembers her being so sweet and kind. But internally, I think that she's very angry with herself because she just can't stop. She keeps losing opportunities that she thinks she deserves, but it's because of her. And if she cannot accept that, it is going to just send constant rage in her body when that thing that she doesn't like about herself, that she can't accept flares up. Also, can I just say that not accepting you're a kleptomaniac and you steal stuff when you have lost so many opportunities because of that and betrayed people is crazy. But that is addiction. Today's video is sponsored by Squarespace. I had a friend that I was catching up with a couple days ago and he is transitioning to starting a fitness business and he was really excited to sit down and build his website. And I remember he's telling me on the phone like, oh, you know, in college, I did some Java, I did some HTML. I don't know if that's what they're using these days, but I think I can do it. And I was like, dude, you have to just use a website builder, use Squarespace. I gave him my coat, don't worry. It's just so interesting to me that I don't know if people realize how easy it is to build a website. And honestly, this sounds really corny, but it's kind of fun. Believe it or not, when you are being creative and building something that might be a piece for your new business or something you're passionate about for the rest of your life, when it comes to fruition and it's easy and not frustrating, it's fun. Then again, this is coming from a girl that used to build websites when I was a kid. 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So if you guys want to use my code and get 10% off of your first purchase of a website, you can just go to squarespace.com/cinnister. That's squarespace.com/cinnister or use sinister at the checkout. Now, when Brittany starts working at this Lulu Lemon in Bethesda, she meets this lady named Jaina Murray. Jaina was about two years older than her and she was born in Kansas, but later moved to Houston, Texas. She was a Texas girl. And she was the daughter of a Houston oil operations manager. So not only were they doing pretty okay, now don't get me wrong, Jaina, you're about to hear, she has worked very hard to get where she is in life, but her family was doing pretty well. So because of that, you know, Jaina also traveled all over the world, sometimes for dad's work, sometimes for, you know, luxury. She was able to experience some of these nicer things in life. Now, one thing about Jaina that was pretty interesting was when she was younger, she joined the Girl Scouts, but she said it was boring and she didn't want to do what they were doing. So instead, she started tagging along with her two brothers on Boy Scout outings. And one thing that she would talk about was during her time hanging around the Boy Scouts, they really emphasized a strong sense of right and wrong. I'm sure they were doing this in the Girl Scouts too, but this is what she was remembering from the Boy Scouts. They would draw a lot of ethical lines about having integrity. That was a really big chunk of it and that is some of what she took away. And she would later recall that, hey, I learned this in the Boy Scouts. Jaina loved animals, she loved dancing, she loved travel. She always wanted to take her pets with her. And, you know, she was very well educated, very well traveled. And I want to point out these are all really amazing things. And like I said, Jaina also worked really, really hard on her education, building her life and living a life of integrity. But I want to point out how Jaina's life is much different than Britney's, who even though her parents were able to afford a lot of opportunities for them, it seems like Britney's life involved a little bit more struggle, but her parents were determined to make it through. Jaina's been traveling all of her life, but she also went to college in Madrid, Spain. A little bit of time here in the US, but yeah, she studied internationally too. She graduated with her Bachelor of Science degree. And in 2011, Jaina was close to completing her degree at John Hopkins University. She was getting a Master's in Communication. That is a pretty prestigious quote. Look, Jaina is solid. She's got it all. She's got it. Now, while Jaina was in college, she kind of heard of Lulu Lemon and started to learn more about their marketing strategies. Lulu Lemon had a very unique business model when they first launched. I mean, they still do, but it was new to a lot of people. And Jaina took an interest in this. She wanted to write a paper on Lulu Lemon. And in order to enhance her paper, she decided to take a job at Lulu Lemon to know more about the business and the community around what she was studying. It does not take long for Jaina to be promoted from educator to sales team leader, essentially kind of being like a manager. Now, she had already written her paper on Lulu Lemon, but you know, she had been working there for a while. She really liked a lot of the girls. Things were going well. And then also because of her new position, she would sometimes go to Lulu Lemon's seminars and she got a great discount on the athletic wear. Like, guys, the pants are $90, okay? The pants are $90. She decides to keep working there as she completes her master's degree. Now, at this time, Brittany is 28 years old and Jaina is 30. A lot of the girls that work there, they seem to have pretty neutral relations with everyone, like either positive to neutral. Like, there was just no, you know, big issues out the store. And everyone kind of trusted each other, except for the store. Lulu Lemon had a policy that at the end of the night, the two closers would check each other's bags to make sure there was nothing in there. Now, if you've ever worked a job like this retail or something, this is pretty common. It's like a mandate that comes from the company itself and then you're expected to abide by it. If you haven't worked one of these jobs before, straight up, the way it works is you're supposed to have your bags checked at the end of every night, but sometimes some managers are chill or sometimes the co-workers, your friend, and you guys are like, "Let's just get out of here." So even though the company policy was that the two closers were supposed to check each other's bags, it probably didn't happen every time. But like I said, it kind of has to do with the manager and who the closer is. And remember, Jaina is a new manager that's here to do her job right, and she has a strong sense of right and wrong. So on Friday, March 11, Jaina was just getting ready to close on the store. As usual, it's her and Brittany. And the end of the night comes and she checks Brittany's bag. And there's a pair of leggings in there that still have the tag on them. Like they're clearly brand new. And Jaina is like, "Okay, all right, let me do my job." And she calls the store manager immediately. And she tells the store manager that she found unpaid leggings in Brittany's bag. The store manager says, "Okay, got it. I'll deal with it in the morning." Around the same time that Jaina is on the phone with her boss, Brittany is calling somebody else that works there and says that she left her wallet at the store. And she needs to go back and get it. So she needs Jaina's number. I'm not sure if Brittany knew at this point that Jaina was already on the phone with the manager or if she didn't know at this point. But I think what may have happened was when Jaina found the leggings in the bag and knew that they were stolen, you know, you're dismissed. You can go ahead and head home for the night. We'll figure this out in the morning. Because why would you want to close the store with somebody who you know might be getting fired or just stole something? Jaina probably told her to go ahead and go and Brittany left and got pissed and called somebody to get Jaina's number and then went back there. That's just what I think may have transpired post their conversation. But regardless what we do know, what happened was Brittany got her number and then she went back to Lulu Lemon. Right next to the Lulu Lemon store was an Apple store. And around 10, 11 o'clock at night, two Apple employees were actually seen on camera listening to something strange. You know, you can see them walking up to the wall and you can see one guy just kind of staring at it and you see him kind of summon somebody else over and they're both just kind of staring at something. These two would later go on to say that they heard screams and yelling coming from the other side of the door. Somebody yelling, "Oh God, please help me." The Apple employees had no idea what this is. They're in a nice shopping mall. Like it's late at night, everything's closed. Like what could this possibly be? But the screams continue and they also hear somebody else talking that is kind of a little more calm and they can actually hear this person saying, "Talk to me. Don't do this. Talk to me. What's going on?" They also heard bumps, knocks. It sounded like a scuffle, but they didn't know what to do. And by a little bit after 11 o'clock, it seemed like the screams had stopped. As the sounds started to subside, the Apple employees concluded amongst themselves that they must have just heard things. They must have exaggerated how about it was. In fact, the manager would later testify that he thought it was just drama and maybe they had figured it out. The next morning on March 12th, a woman named Rachel, who was the manager of the Lululemon store, arrived at 8 a.m. to open up. When she got there, she noticed that the store was disheveled. It seems like things had been thrown all over and she was a little concerned. So she popped back out of the store and then asked a man who was waiting for the Apple store to open that morning if he would just escort her inside to make sure everything was okay. He agrees. They go back in. He goes through the back. She goes in through the front. And one of the first things that he sees is Jaina lying in a pool of blood. And then next, they find Brittany, who seems like she had been attacked as well. But she was tied up and in a strange position. Brittany was dramatically posed when they found her. Her arms were above her head and she was laying on the ground. And she looked kind of like, oh, oh no. Even the investigator would later refer to this as a pose. It was very strange. Regardless of the strange pose, Brittany is found with zip ties, abrasions, and even a hole cut in her pants. When the police arrived, Jaina was dead and it appeared Brittany had also suffered an attack and had possibly been sexually assaulted. The police also said that even though it seemed the attack had happened earlier that night, Brittany was still a bit out of it and appeared to be periodically moaning and appearing to be lapsing in and out of consciousness. The police found this behavior to be a bit strange because it was determined that the attack had happened almost nine hours prior. Shortly after the ambulance and the rest of the first responders arrived on scene, Brittany passes out. She comes to back at the police station and she begins to describe a very gruesome robbery to the investigators. Brittany describes two men in ski masks coming into the building late at night. She said that one of them was about five foot five and the other was six feet tall. She said they came with all black clothing and gloves. Now, in Bethesda, violent crime was pretty rare, especially something of this magnitude. So they listened to her story very intently, but things aren't really adding up. Now, back at the shopping center, what has happened spread very quickly. And not only that, but Jaina was incredibly loved by other people at the store. Her family members, customers, friends, family, you name it. They had taped off the Lulu Lemon store with police tape and put brown paper to cover up all of the windows. But on top of the brown paper were just piles and piles and piles of flowers for Jaina. There were pictures of Jaina all along the store. And even one of the businesses nearby was just hanging these white ribbons in memory of Jaina. This was a very mournful period, but also a scary period because like I said, there is not a lot of violent crime in Bethesda, at least not to this degree towards two women that are just trying to close up the shop for the night. Like this is crazy and the police have to figure it out. So they go in a hunt for the two assailants. Well, very quickly, they found CCTV footage of two guys dressed in all black, walking nearby the shopping center. But they found those two men and they quickly figured out that they were just two guys that worked at a restaurant that were getting off their shift. That's why they were wearing all black. It was just the restaurant clothes. So no leads there. So a woman named Detective Deanna Mackie from the Montgomery County Police Department, she knew Brittany was the only surviving victim. So she went to talk to her about her experience so that maybe she could put together some type of profile for this. This next part is a little graphic, but I have to tell you what Brittany said. Brittany told her that she had been raped and sexually assaulted with a clothing hanger. They like hit me a couple of times, but he went just as hated. Like, I don't think the side of the hat was just like he gave me my hat. And he like zip tied and like leave me together and like arms together. And then like he got me like across somebody and across the house. And yeah, you know what I just thought. Now this detective is a professional. This is a very distinct type of sexual crime. And it will give her information into the profile of the motive of why the person did it, which helps her build a profile of who it is. She next said in another interview when asked, you know, why do you think that they left you alive? Brittany said that the only reason she wasn't killed was because one of the attackers said that she was quote, fun to fuck and that she was quote, a dirty slut. And that she was also very worried that they might know where she lives. If this was a random store break in, you know, the detectives were concerned with, well, how might they know where you live that we need all this information. So now are the attackers, someone that you know. And so Brittany says, well, the attackers knew my name and address because I think they found my Comcast and my gas bill, which was in my purse. So now these detectives have a very interesting profile to put together. The descriptions that Brittany is giving aren't really matching up with the direction that they know where to go. So they continue to interview Brittany. And on this next one, she comes to the police station to give them hair and fingerprint samples. And she brings her to siblings. Her siblings, I left, went to go get something to eat, something like that. And then they were asking Brittany more questions. And one of the questions in particular was they asked if Brittany knew what kind of car Jaina drives. And she said, no, now this is important. The siblings were not there during this questioning. Okay, and I'm gonna tell you why this is important. Brittany blatantly says that she has no idea what kind of car Jaina drives. They never worked together too, too often. And you know, that's not something that was top of mind for her in the police go. Okay. And that's pretty much it. Now the detective team is a little split at this point. Some people still think Brittany might be the victim. Some people kind of think that Brittany could possibly be more involved. And it wasn't until the detectives got a strange call that shifted them all in one direction. Remember I said that Brittany's siblings left to go get something to eat during part of the questioning? Well, they never heard the detectives ask Brittany if she knew what kind of car Jaina drove. So they later end up calling the police station. And they say, hey, we really want to help our sister. And we know that she's been withholding some information and we just want to help. And the police are like, yeah, yeah, like give me what you got, help your sister. And they said, well, Brittany didn't want to tell you guys that the assailants forced her to move Jaina's car. And this was really strange because Jaina's car had been moved. Not only was her car moved, there were fingerprints, blood, hair, and other DNA artifacts in the car. That's probably why they asked her to come in for fingerprint testing. So the siblings make this call the next day. And then in the fourth and final interview that they have with Brittany Norwood, they ask her again about the car. They made me move her car. I know where her car is. And they seem to know where it was. Now, I'm not sure if at this point the siblings were trying to cover up for her or they really believed their sister. Honestly, they probably really did believe her and they just thought, Brittany, you just need to tell them it's not your fault that they made you do that or whatever. So Brittany does not know at this point that they've made this call. Okay, most likely. So on this next interview, they decide to ask about the car again. The detective sat down for another recorded interview. And this one was two hours and 55 minutes. So in this interview, they're already going one direction, but they kind of got a lot of Brittany, some softballs. So they start off by asking her, you know, if she would ever consider moving back to Seattle, back to Washington. And she said, um, I wouldn't really want to do that because I want to make sure that I'm reachable for the police, which is like such an odd reason to like not move back home. Then completely unprompted off of the same thought, she starts to talk about Jaina's car. She's kind of just like rambling and then she kind of gets to it once again, unprompted saying, yeah, and you know, they made me move her car while they were doing whatever they were doing. And then the detective asked her, well, why did you go back to the store? And she said, because I was afraid for my life. It's that if I was to pass to anyone and open my mouth, I could consider myself dead. And that one of them would be watching the entire time. Obviously, the police are not buying this. And also Brittany keeps getting super frustrated. So, you know, they push her on this a little bit. And then she said, we've been over this very annoyed. And the detective responded saying, yeah, but every time we go over it, something else comes out or changes a little bit. So I'm just trying to be as straight as possible. And then one of the detectives really knocks on the thing I was telling you before. They have to take all of these characteristics and build a profile. Usually these profiles make sense because they've seen this type of offender before. It's kind of hard for us that aren't in police work to notice these types of patterns. But these guys that do it all the time, these traits of criminal activity, they have features that cluster together. Now, don't get me wrong. Some people can be outside of their clusters. But the features Brittany was describing, they just don't make sense. And the detective said that himself. He said, quote, there's this little voice in my head while she's talking. Something's just not right. The way Brittany is describing these two guys, they're racist, rapist, robbers, and murderers. It's like the worst human being that one could describe, right? So the police are putting together in this world. So you have, you know, tiny and tall, the six foot guy and the five five guy. And they both have these just horrible, every horrible thing that you could possibly say about a person all concentrated into one. It's not matching a profile. It's also like, you know, the police really believed Brittany Norwood up until the 10th or 15th hour of interviews. One other thing that I thought was really interesting. And of course, there's some more forensic stuff here. But there was a moment in the interview where they asked her a clarifying question. How did you get Jaina's blood on you? And she said, I fell, I fell on her. Okay, there's the answer. And then they said, okay, can you explain how you fell on her? And Brittany starts to get really emotional. Whereas right before this, she had been explaining everything. Very cool, calm and collected. And she's kind of stumbling over words. She's stringing her words together. She's getting more and more emotional whenever you push her. And she's not giving a straight answer. It's very clear to me that Brittany realizes in this moment that when she says that she fell on Jaina, she's going to have to remember where the blood was that they founded on her. And when she demonstrates this to the officer, she's going to have to fall, quote, the right way to explain how the blood got on her in that way. And because Brittany's making it up, she starts to panic. She starts to try to buy more time. She starts to pretend to get extremely emotional so that people don't push further. And how did you fall on to Jaina? I mean, were you on your hands? My knees? Or straight down, face down. Okay. Were you straddling her? Or were you actually physically like pancaked on top of her? Or what? I pushed me on her. I touched her head. You touched her head? With what? And that flipped in the ground. Okay, so your hand's counting the blood on either side of her. Okay. I know it's hard. Put it all over. Can't blow it all over you. People will do that sometimes. They will overwhelm you with emotion so that they are the victim and you stop pushing. And that is exactly what she does in this video when she doesn't have her lie ready. You know, the investigators also took a look at the bloody footprints that were all throughout Lulu Lemon. And they only found two footprints. They found a men's size 14 Reebok sneaker and Brittany's shoes. No two guys. Just a size 14 men's shoe and then Brittany's shoes. And then to pile on top of it, the detectives got some even darker information. The medical examination came back and they found out that neither woman had been sexually assaulted. And Brittany had lied. She had lied that Gina was assaulted. And then she used some type of tool to cut her clothing and claim that she had also been assaulted while also giving these really vicious details to the police. But the medical examiner said it doesn't, nothing had happened. And then to top it all off, they realized that the blood in Gina's car is indeed Brittany Norwood's. And it just doesn't make sense that these people, these rapist, murderer, robbery people would say, hey, you go get out of here from this violent situation and go move her car because we're about to do something to her. And then we want you to move it a couple miles away and then come back. Brittany was no longer considered a victim, but now the prime suspect. You gotta tell us what we're gonna be telling you. Because I know what really happened. Now what you've done is you've concocted an incredible story that doesn't make any talk on citizens. No. With the injuries that you have, they're self-inflicted. They're self-inflicted. You give this to yourself. It's incredible that you want me or anyone to believe that you're lying like this. Overnight in the world is going to believe this story. No one. He doesn't believe it. My loss doesn't believe it. When I tell your brother and your sister, they ain't gonna believe it. And your mother and your father, they're gonna say both. On March 18th, the same day of that last interview, Brittany Norwood was officially charged with murder. Brittany Norwood was not only accused of murder, but also faking injuries, planting evidence, and just lots of other fabrications. At one point in the interrogation room, her brother asked her if she did it. And her response was, "I don't want to talk about it here." After she was formally arrested, they spoke with plenty of co-workers, and nobody could point to any kind of issue between Brittany and Jaina. Like, they never noticed any fights, any arguments, and this made the police believe that this rage from Brittany built up in a matter of minutes. I could see that, but I could see it coming from a place of Jaina represented everything that Brittany was not, and she never would be. She was finishing her degree. She was well-liked. She held a position of authority. She was kind. She was well-liked. She was well-traveled. She had all of these things ahead of her. Shit, she was only really working this job at first to complete her paper. And then she stayed because everyone liked her. Meanwhile, Brittany was somebody who had fucked up her own life due to her own addictions, stealing from friends, family, colleagues, and now the last business that will employ her. And she was about to get fired again. And also, if the theory about impulse control and kleptomania do go hand-in-hand, that would also explain how this built up in a matter of minutes. I really think that a lot of people that have been in the true crime world have probably heard of, quote, "the lululemon murder." But now that I've really dove into it, it was very confusing before because it was like, "Really? What? You did what?" And now I'm like, "Okay, she had issues." And Jaina represented something that Brittany had right in the palm of her hands, and she threw it all the way. And I don't think she ever wanted to admit that. Even when you see the videos of how she speaks and presents herself, she wants so badly to be this particular type of person. But deep down inside, she knows what she is. She is an addict that betrays those that are close to her for a little bit of a high, and it ruins her life over and over and over and over again. I think that Brittany took out all of the rage that she felt towards herself on Jaina. Because during the trial, they showed the crime scene photos. And I gotta say, guys, these are some of the worst I have ever seen in my entire life. There was blood everywhere. There was blood dripping down the walls. She would have had to hit this woman so hard that pools of blood at a velocity came out of Jaina's body and hit the wall and dripped down. This was savage. Jaina was stabbed and beaten over 331 times. This attack was so violent that she severed her spinal cord and crushed and punctured her brain. Prosecutors said that she bledged Jaina for as long as 20 minutes. That's how long this attack went on. It's also how long the Apple employees sat on the other side of the wall wondering if they were making things up or not. One investigator said that Brittany Norwood was a pathological liar. He said that her cunning ability to lie is almost unparalleled because Brittany Norwood will also smile straight at your face. In the sweetest voice, tell you anything that you want to hear. And her defense really tried to tack onto this by filing an insanity plea. Well, in Maryland, it's called a plea of not criminally responsible. It's basically Maryland's version of the insanity defense. And they tried to give her a mental health evaluation, but the guy that was responsible for it, he actually said that the expert found "Brittany had a major mental illness, but he needed to look at more interviews before making specific findings." Next, in late October 2011, the trial actually began. And one of the first people to take the stand was Mary Ripple. She was the medical examiner, and she said that Jaina had at least 105 defensive wounds and no fewer than 331 injuries on her body. And also, she was able to conclude that Jaina was alive and conscious from much of the assault. During this 20 minutes of absolute horror, Brittany ran around the store, grabbing any fatal object that she could and plunged it into Jaina's body. Some of the things that she used were a wrench, a merchandising peg, a hammer, an exacto knife, and a box cutter. She literally ran around torturing her with different tools that she grabbed around the store. I don't want to harp on this too much, but I am really sad that this attack went on for more than 20 minutes. Jaina was still alive. The Apple employees heard it distinctly word for word, and they did not even call 911. Because if they had called 911, they would have showed up while Brittany was walking around, setting stuff up, tying herself up zip ties. Now, everybody said that Brittany was such a sweet, nice girl. She's the VIP lady at the luxury thing. She's the best soccer player. But no, in the trial, they were pulling out all of her stuff. Brittany had several speeding tickets. She was in the middle of a lot of financial issues. She was in debt. She had $20,000 of student loans. But particularly, she had a civil judgment for the student loans because she had completely stopped paying them. Then they also found out that an ex-boyfriend had filed a restraining order against her. The boyfriend had proof that Brittany would regularly punch, push him, throw things at him, and just a slew of other things during the relationship and after. And he had so much proof and it was so bad that the judge in DC actually granted him the restraining order. And then, what did Brittany do? She broke the restraining order by stalking him and his new girlfriend, driving around, following them around. It says that Brittany Norwood used his alarm code, entered his home, and then stole his girlfriend's cell phone. After this happened, which Brittany's just, she clearly is severely mentally ill because get this, this is what she did. The boyfriend said that Brittany called the new girlfriend and just said, "Hello?" And then hung up. Not even like multiple calls, not trying to like intimidate or anything. She was just, "Hello?" Hung up. That's when he got the restraining order and he was like, "Okay, all right, we're out of here." But Brittany just doesn't get it. And she continued to stalk the boyfriend and his new girlfriend while feigning innocence. You know, the sweet, nice character that Brittany puts on. She kept hitting him up and saying like, "Hey, do you want to go get coffee? Hey, let's meet up." He actually said that she would call once a week asking to meet. And it was like she seemed to not understand that the relationship was over. And stealing his girlfriend's cell phone was not something that a friend would do. He really tried to be nice with Brittany. He files, he goes back to the courts and he said that he fears for his safety. And the judge said, "Okay, okay, okay, Brittany, stay away." Just screw up and Brittany says, "Okay, okay, I'm done. I'm done." And she's done, right? Until the ex-boyfriend and his girlfriend look over one day when they're just like chilling and they see Brittany in a dark blue car, probably not even hers, just watching them, watching them. Now, I think this is pretty important information. It tells you a lot about the character of Brittany Norwood. But during this trial for Jaina, Brittany's defense team argued, "These are all allegations stemming from a domestic situation which was never actually proven in court." So not relevant. But you tell me, is Brittany's tendency to stalk and violate boundaries when told no? Is that a key piece of her character? Maybe the trial only lasted eight days. And if you think I haven't told you enough to prove it was Brittany, well, it also came out that she, on her hands and knees, put her hands into the pair of the men's Reebok shoes, which she had found in the store and made the footprints all throughout. She also stole three bags of money from the safe after she killed Jaina. It's not clear to me what she did with the money or how exactly she got back after she moved Jaina's car. But what we do know for certain is after she made the footprints, she stole the money and moved the car. She went back to Lulu Lemon, let herself back in, locked up the store, tied herself up and laid there until the morning. While Jaina lay dying and she waited for somebody to discover her as the victim. And on November 2, 2011, after deliberating for only 21 minutes, the jury found Brittany Norwood guilty of murder. So listen, I bring it all back to that question that I asked you in the very beginning. What is it like growing up in a big family where dad is working hard and mom is trying really hard to raise ambitious, well-educated children that have great opportunities? And what happens when you're in a big family like that and you're failing? While all of your other siblings are not only doing well financially and career-wise, but they also seem to be people that want to be honest and want to be true. And how does it feel if that's just not you? If you just can't do that, if you're the bad egg out of the family. Brittany Norwood, who was arrested at 28 years old, is now 42 and she's incarcerated at the Maryland correction institution. Where she will remain for the rest of her life.
When Brittany Norwood began working at the Lululemon store in Bethesda, Maryland, she appeared to be on a new path in life, but after her coworker, Jayna Murray, discovered her stealing, Brittany desperately tried to cover it up, and she decided that murder was the best way to do it.
Main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@bozevstheworld
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