Woman Accused of Killing Co-Worker Changed Story, According to Court Documents

Brittany Norwood, the Lululemon employee initially thought to be the victim of an attack who is now a , gave police “several different accounts” of what happened on the night of March 11 –after which she was found bound and injured inside the shop and Murray was found dead.

Her account of being forced by her assailants to move Murray’s car while they remained inside the store was characterized as “unbelievable” by a police officer in charging documents.

The Bethesda community is “breathing easier,” according to Montgomery County Councilman Roger Berliner, after Norwood’s arrest Friday. But many were shocked to learn that the woman initially called the surviving victim of an attack by two masked men inside the athletic retail store March 11 had been named a suspect. The crime that police initially characterized as “random” left many in downtown Bethesda fearful and heightening safety precautions.

But after Norwood’s arrest Friday, police said their initial information about the version of events involving the masked men came from Norwood, 28. As the investigation continued, according to police, her story started to unravel.

According to court documents, Norwood told police she and Murray, 30, were attacked by two unknown men. One of the men forced Norwood to open cash tills while the other assaulted Murray in the back of the store, Norwood said, according to the documents. Afterward, Murray said she was sexually assaulted in one of the store’s bathrooms and tied up with zip ties, after which she lost conciousness and remembered only being found the following day by a police officer.

The cuts found on Norwood’s chest, stomach and thighs were described in the documents as “superficial scratches and parallel.” The wounds “had all of the characteristics of self-inflicted injuries,” the documents read.

There was no evidence that either woman had been sexually assaulted, police said.

Photographs of Norwood when she was found revealed that she had been lying on a bathroom floor with her feet bound and her hands tied above her head, the documents read. The police officer wrote he believed “Norwood posed herself in this position.”

Other pieces of the investigation that didn’t match Norwood’s story included witnesses – who Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said at a Friday press conference had been next door at the Apple Store – that heard two women screaming around 10:30p.m. The witnesses didn’t hear any male voices.

Forensic technicians uncovered only two sets of bloody footprints inside the store, one of which belonged to Norwood and the other that originated from a size 14 pair of shoes. Norwood told police the shoes, which were recovered at the scene, were kept at the store for customers who wanted pants altered. The shoes were kept on a wooden rack inside the store, Norwood told police. The shoes “appeared to have been washed; however, still had visible blood splatter,” the documents read.

Both sets of footprints prints tracked to a chair, where they ended, according to the documents. “Forensic examination indicated evidence of clean up,” the documents read.

When officers asked Norwood about Murray’s car, which was moved from near  the store to a public parking lot about three blocks away on Wisconsin Avenue, her story was inconsistent, according to the documents. In an interview on March 16, detectives asked Norwood whether she was ever inside the vehicle. She told the detectives she had only seen the car in passing, according to the documents.

Later, in an interview on March 18 at police headquarters, Norwood told officers that before she was sexually assaulted, the attackers forced her to take Murray’s keys and move the car while they remained inside. She said the men told her to come back to the store in ten minutes or they would killed her, according to the documents. Norwood said she saw a police officer and “at least two other people” on the street” while she was moving the car, but didn’t ask for help, according to the douments.

In his account, the police officer described Norwood’s story as “unbelievable.”

“Norwood was unwilling to explain the inconsistencies in all her statements,” the documents read. “When your affiant asked Norwood if Murray started the fight, Norwood said “Yes” but would not say more.”

At a Friday press conference, Manger didn’t describe a potential motive other than that the two women had been in a “dispute.”

Norwood’s address is listed on Florida Avenue in Northwest Washington. She attended in New York  -- a SUNY school located on Long Island -- between 2000 and 2003, where she played soccer.

According to Stony Brook University's online soccer records, Norwood played defense for the university's team the Seawolves from 2001 to 2003. In 2001 she was an All-America East second team selection, and in 2002 she was named to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Northeast Regional Team. She was credited as being "the lynchpin of a Stony Brook defense that roared through the second half of the season" and made the conference championship game that year, according to an athletics department statement dated Dec. 11, 2002. In 2003, she played in 12 games as the team finished with a 7-11-1 record.

A Stony Brook athletic communications representative did not respond to a request for comment from a Patch reporter Monday morning. 

A lawyer for Norwood couldn't immediately be located. Norwood is expected in court Monday.