Alabama police Sunday arrested a female suspect for the murder of a DeKalb County woman who vanished in in 2021, now presumed dead

Victim Mary Elizabeth Isbell, 37, had been missing since 2021 and cops are still searching for human remains

Loretta Ray Carr, 43, of Fort Payne, was arrested for capital murder and kidnapping charges of the mother-of-one, three years ago

Police said Carr abducted and killed Isbell by pushing her off of a cliff to her death on October 18th, 2021

Connection between the women has not been established and Carr’s lawyers argue there is no evidence she murdered Isbell

Carr is being held without bail as DeKalb County Sheriff’s deputies search for Isbell’s remains

Connection between the women has not been established and Carr’s lawyers argue there is no evidence she murdered Isbell

Questions remain about the alleged homicide

Mary Elizabeth ‘Beth’ Isbell Wright, a mother-of-one from Hartselle, Alabama, was officially reported missing in January 2022, three months after police say she was killed. Loretta Ray Carr, was arrested Sunday for allegedly kidnapping Isbell and pushing her off a cliff to her death

A woman in Alabama is in custody, accused of killing another woman by pushing her off a cliff in 2021. 
The deceased woman, Mary Elizabeth ‘Beth’ Isbell Wright, 37, had been considered a missing person in the town of Hartselle, just north of Birmingham, since late 2021. 
On Sunday, DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department announced that Loretta Ray Carr, 43, of Fort Payne, Alabama, had been arrested and charged with capital murder and kidnapping of Isbell Wright.
According to the police, Carr abducted and killed Isbell by pushing her off of a cliff on October 18th, 2021.

Loretta Ray Carr, 43, of Fort Payne, Alabama, was arrested Sunday for allegedly kidnapping 37-year-old Isbell and ‘intentionally killing her’ by pushing her off a cliff to her death in January 2021

However, since Isbell Wright was first declared a missing person in January 2022, her family have maintained that she was last seen in November 2021, a month after the supposed murder took place. 
DeKalb County Sheriff’s deputies are now searching for Isbell’s remains in an undisclosed location, while Carr is being held without bond.
Carr’s lawyers are arguing in court documents obtained by AL.com that there is no evidence she murdered Isbell, as it remains unclear whether there was any connection between alleged killer and victim and authorities have not elaborated on Carr’s possible motive or how the two women knew each other.

Carr’s lawyers are arguing that there is no evidence she murdered Mary Elizabeth Isbell Wright [photos]. The connection between the two women remains unclear

DeKalb County District Judge Steven Whitmire has set a preliminary hearing for August 21.
In December 2021, the father of Isbell’s son made a post on social media asking for information about her whereabouts.
‘I actually hate to put this out here on social media but Facebook covers a wide area. [her son] hasn’t heard from his mom since September 6th on his birthday and he’s really worried about her bc she always at least calls him on the holidays,’ Steven Isbell wrote on December 27th.
‘I’ve talked to her family and no one has heard from her. So we thought about doing a missing person report,’ he added.
An official missing persons report was made in January 2022 with both the Hartselle Police Department and the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office. A Facebook group seeking information about her disappearance was set up in April 2022.
A month later, her son paid a heartbreaking Facebook tribute on mother’s day.
‘Happy Mother’s Day momma if your out there and if not happy heavenly mother’s day. I love and miss you so much there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about you!,’ he wrote in part.

Mary Elizabeth Isbell Wright [left], was living with her boyfriend James Allen Wright, [right], who had just been arrested and sent to rehab in Florida, before she vanished

The missing woman was last seen driving a black Jeep, with Alabama tags. She was reported missing in Jan. 2022.
At the time she was last seen, Isbell was living with her boyfriend, James Allen Wright, in DeKalb County. 
WAAY reported in the summer of 2022, that Isbell was suspected of theft prior to her disappearance.
The station reported that James Allen Wright was arrested by the sheriff’s office in September 2021 for an undisclosed crime and was released to a rehab facility in Florida in November 2021.
While he was in jail, the sheriff’s office said, Isbell was ‘living where she could in DeKalb County.
‘I think she got mixed up with some wrong people,’ her mother, Debbie Wood, told the local news channel last year.
She described Isbell’s relationship as ‘new but troubled,’ saying they were always getting into fights. 
Authorities have previously said Isbell was last seen on November 23, 2021 when she visited her mother in her hometown of Hartselle, and was spotted again the next day across the street from her son’s school.
At the time she was last seen, Isbell was living with her boyfriend, James Allen Wright, in DeKalb County. 
WAAY reported in the summer of 2022 that Isbell suspected of theft prior to her disappearance.

Isbell Wright, was last seen driving a black Jeep with Alabama tags. She was reported missing in Jan. 2022, although she was killed in October 2021, according to police

Sheriff’s office said Isbell was living ‘where she could’ in DeKalb County after her partner James Allen Wright was sent to jail 

The station reported that James Allen Wright was arrested by the sheriff’s office in September 2021 for an undisclosed crime and was released to a rehab facility in Florida in November 2021.
While he was in jail, the sheriff’s office said, Isbell was ‘living where she could in DeKalb County.
Her mother Debbie Wood in an interview with local ABC affiliate, WAAYTV last year, said: ‘I think she got mixed up with some wrong people.’
Wood described Isbell’s relationship as ‘new but troubled,’ saying they were always getting into fights. 
Authorities have previously said Isbell was last seen on November 23, 2021 when she visited her mother in her hometown of Hartselle, and was spotted again the next day across the street from her son’s school. But according to the criminal complaint filed Monday, Isbell was killed one month prior to her reported appearance at her mother’s house.

While her live-in boyfriend was in jail rehab, ‘I think she got mixed up with some wrong people,’ Isbell’s mother, Debbie Wood, [photo], told a local ABC affiliate last year, expressing fears that her daughter may be dead

Speaking of her pain while her daughter was still reported missing, Wood said: ‘Part of me wants to believe she’s still here, the other part says “Get ready for a funeral if we can find her remains.”‘
In a statement DeKalb County Sheriff Nick Welden said: ‘DCSO along with several other Law Enforcement entities and Emergency Services personnel are currently on the scene of an undisclosed location attempting to recover possible human remains. At this point, no other information is available.
‘The case is top priority and further information will be released when available and no risk of jeopardizing the case is considered.

On her Facebook page, Isbell wrote on her Intro section: ‘It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.’
Multiple tributes on social paid tribute to her as a loving mother who loved life. News of Carr’s arrest for her murder came two days before what would have been her 39th birthday. 
Following the news that Isbell had been murdered, a Facebook group set up entitled ‘Search for Beth Isbell Wright’ became flooded with people expressing their grief.
The judge has scheduled a preliminary hearing for August 21.