Recently, a 28-year-old Maryland woman brutally attacked her 30-year-old coworker after closing shop for the night at a Lululemon Athletica store in a Bethesda.

The suspect, who is a native of Washington State, appeared in Montgomery County Court on Monday to face a charge of murder.

According to Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy, the accused woman took a weapon or tool within the Athletic store and attacked her coworker, inflicting upon her multiple wounds "too numerous to count," crushing her skull and severing her spinal cord. The attack took place over the course of twenty minutes, after the two had closed up the store for the night and then gone back inside to argue about something. When found by police, the victim had a ligature around her neck.

Police reported that, following the attack, Norwood gave herself superficial wounds and tied her arms and legs up. She also dipped a display shoe in the victim's blood, and tracked blood around the store, telling police that two masked men raped the two women and then murdered the victim. Upon investigation, no evidence of such an attack was found.

The suspect's story fell apart when she told investigators she moved the victim's car to different parking to a different lot three blocks away during the attack. In addition, police obtained a recording of unfavorable comments she made to her family in a police interview room.

Although the suspect's motives for the attack are not known, it is known that, earlier in the evening of the attack, the victim called her manager to report that she believed the suspect had stolen some expensive yoga merchandise and placed it in her bag. At the time, the manager decided to deal with it the next morning.

In this case, what perhaps started as a simple robbery blew up into the most horrendous of crimes. And although the suspect has no previous criminal record, she will now be facing some serious penalties.

Source: NBC, "Robbery Led to Homicide at Lululemon: Prosecutor," Tim Persinko, 22 Mar 2011.