One of the two women accused of pushing 37-year-old Mary Elizabeth Isbell off a cliff in DeKalb County has admitted guilt and agreed to testify against her own mother.
Court documents filed Monday show Jessie Kelly, who was once facing a capital murder charge, plead guilty to a lesser charge of murder. As part of the plea agreement, Kelly was sentenced to 40 years in prison. She now has to truthfully testify against her co-defendant, who also happens to be her mother, Loretta Kay Carr. Carr will be going on trial for capital murder this December.
The case stems from the disappearance and death of Isbell, whose remains were discovered in June 2023 at Little River Canyon National Reserve in Fort Payne. By that time, Isbell had been missing for more than a year. Investigators said her death appeared to be the result of being thrown from the cliff.
DeKalb County Sheriff Nick Weldon confirmed last summer that Kelly and Carr both knew Isbell. He suggested the crime appeared to be tied to a boyfriend who connected the women. The arrests of Kelly and Carr last July shocked the small community, not only for the brutality of the crime but also because of the mother-daughter partnership alleged in court filings.
Kelly, who was 20 years old at the time of the killing, sought youthful offender status early in the proceedings but was denied. Speculation has lingered about whether or not she would accept the plea deal, or face the death penalty with her mother. With the deal in place, she’s now the key witness in Carr’s trial.
Isbell was reported missing to Hartsville police on December 27, 2021. Nearly eighteen months later, on June 28, 2023, her remains were found in the canyon. Just weeks after that discovery, Kelly was arrested on July 16, followed soon after by Carr. Prosecutors charged both with capital murder, describing the act as a deliberate killing carried out together.
Now, with Kelly’s guilty plea secured, attention shifts squarely to Carr’s upcoming trial. For Isbell’s family, the plea deal brings a measure of accountability but the story won’t end until the responsibility for a crime that has haunted DeKalb County for years is finally taken.
