ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – A 20-year-old upstate New York woman admitted Tuesday that she strangled a 5-year-old cousin who had been in her parents’ care and discarded his body along a road before calling in a false report that two masked intruders took him from their home.
Tiffany VanAlstyne pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for killing Kenneth White in the rural Albany County town of Berne. She faces 18 years in prison as part of a plea bargain.
A bogus 911 call from VanAlstyne on Dec. 18 touched off an Amber Alert and search for the boy that ended when a police dog led investigators to his body in a culvert not far from the home. Authorities said VanAlstyne covered the boy with snow to conceal the crime.
Under questioning by a judge Tuesday, VanAlstyne said she was helping Kenneth with school work when she got frustrated by his wrong answers. She said she had no recollection of what happened for some period of time.
“When you came to … and you started recalling things, your hand was on his neck. Is that correct,” County Judge Stephen Herrick asked.
“Yes,” she said.
Police said she then threw the boy’s body “like a piece of trash” over a guard rail along a rural two-lane road about 40 yards from the trailer home where they lived.
VanAlstyne’s parents were the legal guardians of Kenneth, his twin sister Cheyenne, and 4-year-old sister Christine. The children had lived in the home for more than a year.
The girls were subsequently placed with other guardians after a Family Court judge found they had been abused and neglected. The children’s parents have also admitted neglecting them.
Sentencing is set for Jan. 14.