An Arizona mother serving a life sentence for killing her two daughters has reportedly taken her own life in prison.
According to the NY Post, Retta Cruse was convicted in 2021 after admitting to poisoning her daughters, Aleyah McIntyre, 9, and Royal McIntyre, 4, shortly after relocating from New Jersey to Arizona for “spiritual reasons.”
Cruse pleaded guilty to the murders and was sentenced in 2022. On February 21, 2025, she was found unresponsive in her prison cell, believed to have died by suicide. The Arizona Department of Corrections stated that prison staff attempted life-saving measures, but paramedics later pronounced her dead.
