By STEWART J. LAWRENCE
It
seems like a shocking but isolated incident – a grisly killing carried
out in a posh clothing store located in the heart of Bethesda, Maryland,
a fashionable Washington, DC suburb where violent crime is rare. But
last week’s shocking murder of Jayna Murray, the thirty-year-old manager
of an elite yoga apparel store, Lululemon, has caused something of a
local furor. For one thing, the victim and the apparent perpetrator,
Brittany Norwood, 28, are both women – a statistical rarity. In fact,
according to the US Justice Department, less than 3% of all murders
involve women in both roles. And then there’s the attack’s savagery:
Norwood apparently beat and stabbed Murray nearly beyond recognition,
so badly, in fact, that even seasoned homicide investigators blanched
after arriving at the crime scene. And finally, there’s the matter of
race. Norwood, you see, is Black, and Murray was White, in a city – 60%
Black and 30% White - where racial tensions figure into nearly every
local controversy.
Norwood
herself seems to have played on racial fears and stereotypes when she
planned and executed the crime. She originally told police that two
masked intruders, both Black, had tied her and Murray up and raped them
before beating them. That initial account sent shock waves throughout
the area, and generated enormous sympathy for both women. But when
police examined them, they found no evidence that either had been
sexually assaulted. In addition, Norwood’s wounds, which were
relatively slight, appeared completely self-inflicted. And under
repeated questioning, her story’s inconsistencies mounted. Police
eventually concluded that she’d concocted the entire intruder story, and
had killed Murray herself.
Now
that Norwood’s been charged, many local residents and storeowners have
breathed a sigh of relief. Some who had hired extra security and
installed video cameras on the assumption that two killers were still on
the loose, and could strike again, are happy that their neighborhood
may not be falling prey to the kind of racial crimes and robberies
witnessed elsewhere in the area. A widely read local columnist, Robert
McCartney, neatly encapsulated the kind of polite racism one hears in
affluent White neighborhoods when he noted that many residents had long
feared that Bethesda’s relatively new Metro subway stop would bring a
“bad element” to the area. That’s rather ironic, when you consider that
Norwood’s hiring – and her role in the killing – might actually confirm
just such an exaggerated racial fear. But so far, none of the major
newspapers, including the Washington Post, has mentioned that Norwood is
Black, or even run a picture of her – unthinkable if the protagonist of
the crime had been a White man – a sign of just how touchy the issue
is.
Why
did Norwood kill Murray? Some have speculated that the two women may
have had a workplace dispute, possibly because Norwood, who’s had
documented financial problems in the past, was caught stealing or
embezzling from the store (which comes close to another racial
stereotype). But workplace disputes account for just 9% of all murders
involving women, according to Justice Department statistics. And while
employees of an adjacent store did say they heard the women arguing the
night of the murder, police don’t think this was a spontaneous,
heat-of-passion crime based on a specific triggering event. Based on
the forensic evidence, which appears to include the murder weapon, but
most of which has not yet been made public, police have already charged
Norwood with first-degree murder, which implies deliberate
premeditation.
What
shocks many local analysts of the crime is its degree of rage and
violence, which is highly suggestive of a deeply personal motive. In
fact, according to research studies, women who commit murder rarely kill
strangers or even co-workers; they normally kill intimates – either
their husbands, lovers or friends. Which raises the issue of just what
kind of personal relationship Murray and Norwood might have had, and
whether trouble in that relationship might have prompted Norwood to kill
– and to kill in such a vicious way. Some observers have speculated
that two might have been lovers and that Norwood became jealous and
eventually violent when Murray, who reportedly had a new steady
boyfriend, moved to break off their relationship.
Others
wonder whether the two women’s connection to the high-powered American
yoga world - with its deliberate blending of sex, glamour, beauty, and
affluence - may have helped set the stage for such an extreme crime, by
creating impossible expectations of status and achievement among two
beautiful, high-achieving women. Norwood, in fact, was a stand-out
soccer star in her home town of Seattle before moving to Washington, DC
and eventually becoming hired by the Canadian-based Lululemon, whose use
of sexually inflammatory advertising to sell its pricey yoga apparel
has caused considerable controversy, including threats of a possible
boycott. Perhaps both women found themselves in fierce competition,
and only one could keep up, and that led to a pattern of disrespectful
verbal conflict and emotional distress that boiled over into rage
between two prideful divas.
Right
now, Norwood’s motive is largely a matter of speculation. Some
desperately want to believe that she must be mentally ill, or a
substance abuser. But beneath the surface of this crime is the reality
of shifting gender roles and sources of power and influence among
aspiring young women in extremely status-conscious metropolises like the
nation’s capital.
As
opportunities for these women have expanded, so, perhaps, have the
stakes in trying – and perhaps failing - to obtain them. Once upon a
time a losing female party might have slinked to the sidelines. No
longer. I am woman, she says. Hear my roar.
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