The case of a Fort Payne woman accused of kidnapping and pushing another woman off a cliff in 2021 is heading to a grand jury.

District Judge Steven Whitmire Wednesday allowed the case of Loretta Kay Carr, 45, to proceed to a grand jury after a preliminary hearing in Fort Payne, finding there was sufficient evidence, after a hearing of about three hours.

Whitmire denied a defense motion to seal the court file, but did grant a motion to seal pre-trial proceedings in order to protect the potential jury pool from prejudice. Defense attorneys for Carr cited news coverage of the case, which has made it into international news outlets, as a motivating factor for sealing testimony.

Carr, 45, of Fort Payne, was charged last month with capital murder-kidnapping in the October 2021 death of Mary Elizabeth Isbell. Her daughter, Jessie Eden Kelly, 22, faces the same charge.

The remains of Isbell, who had been reported missing for almost two years, were identified June 30, on what would have been her 39th birthday, after their discovery in Little River Canyon National Park.

Isbell was reported missing by her ex-husband on Dec. 27, 2021. Detectives with Hartselle police used phone records to determine she had been living in the DeKalb County area on Lookout Mountain.

The discovery of her remains came after a tip in June. Authorities believe Isbell’s death occurred sometime between the evening of Oct. 18 and the early morning of Oct. 19, 2021.

The three women knew each other through a man, an investigator said following Carr’s arrest.

At a press conference following the identification of Isbell’s body, investigators said they suspected her remains were somewhere in the area of the park, but they were unsure of its exact location. They found it after receiving information from one of the suspects, an investigator said in June.