A second suspect has been charged with capital murder in the death of an Alabama mother whose body was found this week in Alabama’s rugged Little River Canyon atop Lookout Mountain.
As CrimeOnline reported, Mary Elizabeth Isbell, who also went by Beth Wright, hadn’t been seen since October 2021. On Sunday, DeKalb County investigators charged Loretta Kay Carr, 45, with capital murder-kidnapping for allegedly pushing Isbell off a cliff sometime in October 2021.
A search team, acting on a tip it received on June 20, found Isbell’s remains in Little River Canyon National Preserve on Wednesday, AL.com reported. The body was positively identified on Friday.
Also Friday, DeKalb County Sheriff Nick Weldon said that another woman — Jessie Eden Kelly — had been charged with capital murder in the case. Kelly is in custody in Pennsylvania, awaiting extradition to Missouri on felony charges, Weldon said, but she is now expected to be extradited to Alabama on the murder charge sometime this summer.
Isbell’s ex-husband reported her missing on December 27, 2021, when she didn’t call to wish their son a merry Christmas. Hartselle police determined she had been living in the DeKalb County area on Lookout Mountain, and a search of her residence and vehicle turned up physical evidence of a struggle.
A DeKalb County investigator said at a news conference that Kelly and Carr knew Isbell through another person and that they had been suspects in her disappearance from the beginning. Detectives said they believed Isbell’s body was was somewhere in the area of the 15,288-acre preserve, but until one of the suspects gave up the location, they weren’t sure where.
Authorities did not say which suspect provided the tip about the location, but earlier this week, Carr’s attorney argued that the state didn’t have enough evidence to hold her in jail or send the case to the grand jury.
The investigators said they believe Isbell’s “brutal and inhuman” death took place between the evening of October 18 and the early morning of October 19, 2021.
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[Featured image: Mary Elizabeth Isbell/Hartselle Police Department]
