Update: Since this story was posted, police have charged the woman who claimed to be victimized with the murder of Murray. For more information click here.

**Also by Lucy Chen**

In a news conference March 14, police announced a $136,000 reward for any information about the murder of one woman, identified as Jayna T. Murray, and sexual assault of another in Lululemon Athletica March 11. Lululemon is offering $125,000, Federal Realty is offering $10,000, and Crime Solvers is offering $1,000.

Lululemon is currently closed and is not expected to reopen soon, due to the ongoing investigation. Police are questioning people who were in the area Friday night at 10 p.m. and are currently following a few leads, said David Dabney, executive director of Bethesda Urban Partnership, and Kenneth Hartman, director of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase regional services center.

The Lululemon employees were attacked after the store closed Friday night. Police are searching for two male suspects seen wearing masks and gloves the night of the crime.  One suspect is 6 feet tall and the other is around 5-foot-3, according to a March 13 article in the Washington Post.

“The two suspects, when they arrived, were prepared to commit a crime,” police captain Paul Starks said.  “They had gloves, they had masks and they concealed their identities.”

In response to the attacks, Federal Realty has increased security in downtown Bethesda, placing security officers on street corners.  Many employees at Bethesda stores have reconsidered the safety precautions they take while at work.

Gretchen Hitchner, owner of Ginger boutique on Bethesda Lane, feels the impact of the nearby attack.

“It could’ve been this store, it could’ve been these employees,” she said.  “I think [our employees are] realizing how lucky we are to be alive today.  It happened yards from us, and that’s just hard to swallow.”

Some store managers sent emails to their employees informing them of the crimes and making sure everyone was safe.  Junior Olivia Baxter, who works at Urban Chic, a boutique near Ginger, was informed of the incident through an email from her manager.

Baxter frequently works with only one other person in the store, just as it was in Lululemon when the attack occurred.

“That’s one of the things that made me nervous,” Baxter said.  “Our store setup is very similar to Lululemon’s, so the same thing could’ve happened.  It’s just very nerve-racking.”

Baxter initially chose to work in Bethesda in part because she believed the area was safe.

The crime also rattled the confidence of senior Austin Ricketts, who works at SweetGreen.

“I mean, it’s Bethesda,” Ricketts said.  “This wasn’t really supposed to happen in Bethesda.  It was like something out of a TV show or something.  It was really hard to believe that it could happen like that.”

Like many other businesses in the area, Urban Chic now plans to increase security to keep employees safe.  Among other changes, the store will change shifts so employees never work alone.

Georgetown Cupcake founders Katherine Kallinis and Sophie LaMontagne sent their employees an email offering an escort service for employees going to their cars or the metro at the end of their shifts at night.

“We want to make sure everyone feels safe getting home at night,” they wrote in the email.

Ginger will offer a similar service to its employees, Hitchner said.

Employees throughout Bethesda Row are familiar with one another and have close connections, so the whole area felt the impact of the assault.

“We’re a community here,” Hitchner said.  “We see these employees every day.  They’re all familiar faces to us, and to think that it happened when so many people were around because they weren’t able to call for help — people feel terrible that this happened and no one knew about it.”