FORT PAYNE, AL – An alarming case has surfaced in Alabama where a woman faces potential capital punishment for allegedly pushing another woman off a cliff, resulting in her death. The DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office disclosed its plans last week to seek the death penalty against the accused, 44-year-old Loretta Carr, in a notice to the court.
Carr remains in custody without bail after her indictment for the murder of 37-year-old mother, Mary Elizabeth Isbell. According to allegations presented by the authorities, Carr is believed to have kidnapped Isbell and forced her off a cliff into Little River Canyon in Fort Payne. The relationship between the two women remains unclear.
In a crucial development, Carr’s daughter, Jessie Eden Kelly, was also charged with capital murder owing to her supposed complicity in Isbell’s death.
Isbell’s sudden disappearance was reported to the Hartselle Police Department as well as the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office in late 2021. Her remains were finally located by a search team on June 28, 2023, at the Little River Canyon National Park, as a result of leads provided by either Carr or Kelly.
Carr was taken into police custody on June 25, 2023, and has, as per online court records, pleaded not guilty. Kelly, who was previously in Pennsylvania in an unrelated incarceration, has since been extradited to Alabama.