Retta Cruse was serving two life sentences in the killings of Aleyah and Royal.
A Pleasantville woman who admitted to killing her young daughters in Arizona has died in prison.
Retta Cruse, 38, was serving two life sentences in the 2021 deaths of the girls, ages 9 and 4.
Aleyah and her little sister, Royal, were found in a bed facing each other with their arms around one another as though they had been placed in that position, police said at the time.
The fathers indicated she was upset about losing custody of the girls.
The father of 9-year-old Aleyah told BreakingAC at the time that he recently won a court battle to have his daughter returned to him in Millville, after Cruse allegedly refused to return the girl after a visit in March 2020.
Michael Coleman, 4-year-old Royal's father, reportedly told police Cruse "was upset over a recent court hearing where she was losing custody of" one of the girls. He also said she told him the girls had COVID-19, and that she was keeping them isolated and medicating them.
After drugging the girls, Cruse stabbed herself several times.
She was found Friday in her housing unit unresponsive from an apparent hanging, according to a statement from authorities.
Life-saving measures were conducted by prison staff until paramedics arrived, the statement read. The paramedics, in consultation with medical staff, pronounced her dead at the scene.
Cruse was serving her sentence in the Arizona State Prison Complex-Perryville in Goodyear, Ariz.
All inmate deaths are investigated in consultation with the county medical examiner’s office.
