South Jersey Mom Who Killed Daughters Takes Life In Prison: Officials

PHOENIX, AZ — A former Pleasantville mother serving consecutive life sentences for the murders of her two young daughters took her own life while in prison, the Arizona Department of Corrections said.

Retta Cruse, 38, was found unresponsive in her cell at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Perryville on Feb. 21, authorities said in a news release. She was later pronounced dead.

Cruse appeared to have died by suicide, according to authorities.

Her daughters, Royal McIntyre, 4, and Aleyah McIntyre, 9, were found dead on a bed inside their Phoenix home on Sept. 9, 2021, Patch previously reported.

The younger girl’s father, Michael Coleman, found their bodies facing each other in the bed.

In a GoFundMe organized to raise funds for a funeral at the time, Coleman said he moved with Cruse and the girls from New Jersey to Arizona for “spiritual reasons.”

“Unfortunately, I came home to a devastating situation where my daughters were deceased and their mother critically injured. At this point, there are still more questions than answers,” he wrote on the fundraiser.

Kevin Maddox, Aleyah’s father, still had custody of the girl and was fighting to have her returned to New Jersey, Maddox’s brother told the Press of Atlantic City.

Cruse suffered stab wounds the night of her daughters' deaths that authorities believed were self-inflicted, according to Phoenix police.