Mom and daughter kidnap woman and push her off cliff, AL cops say. One sentenced

A missing woman was found dead after being thrown off a cliff nearly two years earlier, leading to the arrest of a mother-daughter duo, authorities in Alabama said.

The daughter, 24-year-old Jessie Kelly, has now pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 40 years in prison, AL.com reported from DeKalb County court records.

As part of her plea, she agreed to testify against her mother, 47-year-old Loretta Carr, who’s charged with capital murder and faces the death penalty, according to WHNT and AL.com.

Mary Elizabeth “Beth” Isbell was reported missing by her ex-husband in Hartselle, Alabama, in December 2021, the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office said.

Investigators with the local police department determined through phone records that Isbell had been living in the Lookout Mountain area at the time, chief investigator Nick Brown said during a June 2023 news conference broadcast by WHNT.

They searched her home, where they found “signs of a struggle,” Brown said.

Phone records led investigators to several people she had been in contact with at the time, but what cracked the case open was a tip naming the two women in June 2023, according to the sheriff’s office.

“We actually received names that we had been looking at in the beginning,” Brown said.

Investigators learned the tip was credible, and one person described as a co-defendant led law enforcement to the location of a body on June 28, 2023, in Little River Canyon National Park, authorities said.

Two days later, on what would have been Isbell’s 39th birthday, the remains were confirmed to be hers, according to the sheriff’s office.

Carr and Kelly were both charged with capital murder, but Kelly pleaded guilty to a lesser offense of murder, outlets reported.

“This is a capital murder case,” Brown said. “So, this case meets the criteria, not only by kidnapping but by multiple other statutes that bring in the capital.”

Isbell knew the other women through “a boyfriend,” according to the chef investigator.

Authorities said they believe she suffered fatal injuries when she was thrown off the cliff, sometime around Oct. 18 or Oct. 19, 2021. Court records reveal Carr is the one believed to have pushed Isbell, McClatchy News previously reported.

Brown described the women’s actions as “heinous” and “brutal.”

Kelly sought youthful offender status, which was rejected.

DeKalb County is about a 100-mile drive northeast from Birmingham.