ALBANY — The home of Christine and Cheyanne White is still undetermined, a month after their 5-year-old brother, Kenneth, was found strangled to death and covered in snow across from the street from their last home in Knox.

At a Wednesday hearing in Albany County Family Court, Judge Gerard E. Maney did not allow any attempts by family members to gain custody of the young children, including a woman who said she was a great aunt on their mother’s side. Brenda VanAlstyne, their aunt and legal guardian at the time of the murder, was denied visits with the two girls as she begins to see psychologists.

The parties agreed to a family psychological assessment of VanAlstyne and the children’s parents by the county’s Department of Children, Youth and Families before returning to court in March.

Five women stood on the curb across the street from the courthouse during the proceedings, holding signs with messages of justice for the slain Berne-Knox-Westerlo kindergartener. They said they want to see the girls adopted by another family, and are disgusted with the situation the children were in. The girls are now in the care of Albany County Child Protective Services. Cheyanne, Kenneth’s twin, was 5 at the time of the Dec. 18 murder and Christine was 4.

In a previous hearing, their father, Jayson White, was denied custody of Christine and Cheyanne. The children’s mother, Christine VanAlstyne White, lives in Amsterdam. The judge Wednesday cited previous allegations against Jayson White, including sex abuse, four counts of endangering the welfare of children, and unsanitary conditions in Montgomery County.

“We’ve been stonewalled by Berkshire County,” said Jeffrey Kennedy, assistant senior attorney for the Albany County Department of Law, representing the department of Children, Youth and Families. He added that the Massachusetts county’s child protective services has not returned phone calls or messages over the past month in order to learn more about Jayson White’s history there.

What is known, he said, is that White has recently moved from his home in western Massachusetts.

Maney described the lack of information on White, as well as his known history, among the risks that weighed on whether the two girls should be released from the county department or visited by relatives.

“She’s charged with neglect and abuse, the allegation that a child was murdered in her care and custody,” Maney said of Brenda VanAlstyne.

In December, three of White’s children — twins Kenneth and Cheyanne, and their younger sister Christine — had been living in a trailer with Brenda VanAlstyne, their aunt and legal guardian, along with VanAlstyne’s daughter, Tiffany, Kenneth VanAlstyne, and a young man that police described as having been taken in by VanAlstyne.

At 19, Tiffany was arrested by police for second-degree murder, charged with brutally killing Kenneth, her cousin. On Dec. 18, she had a prescription filled and was with the children in their trailer on Thatcher Park Road while her mother was briefly away at the school, police said.

Tiffany VanAlstyne initially reported that two men in black ski masks broke into their trailer, held her down, and took Kenneth away in a black truck. An Amber Alert was issued for a missing child, called off after the body was found by a police dog.

Speaking to the press on the day of the arrest, police said Christine and Cheyanne were in the home when Kenneth was killed but did not say what they witnessed. The two girls have seen a developmental pediatrician, Kennedy said in court, with a report on their conditions and needs not ready for the hearing.

As of Wednesday, Tiffany VanAlstyne had not been indicted and remains in jail, Rylan Richie, the Albany County assistant public defense attorney representing her, told the judge.

Tiffany VanAlstyne said she takes various medications for bipolar disorder, birth control, and some she couldn’t identify during her arraignment on Dec. 19. County officials said they did not see mental health as a factor in their investigation.

Kennedy said Brenda VanAlstyne has begun to see a psychologist and submitted a list of medications she takes, “reported to be taking as prescribed,” he said.

Jim McSparron, representing Christine and Cheyanne White, consented to resuming the visits with Brenda VanAlstyne, which were suspended at the last hearing. “With the understanding that, if something goes wrong, it would cease,” he said.

“So I am supposed to find that there’s no risk, that the trauma these two children have faced has been eliminated by one visit by Brenda VanAlstyne to a family health center?” Maney asked later in the hearing. “I don’t even have a report from them.” She was denied visits with the two girls.

The trailer where Kenneth lived with Brenda VanAlstyne was described as unsuitable for children when Sheriff Craig Apple spoke to reporters after Tiffany’s arrest, and he requested that the town’s zoning administrator inspect its conditions. Inside, Apple said, clothing was dangerously near space heaters and a woodstove was poorly ventilated

Knox’s assistant building inspector, Daniel Sherman, visited the trailer the next day, on Dec. 20, finding it was in violation of 14 sections of state property maintenance law. He said the heating source needed to be repaired. In a notice and order given to Brenda VanAlstyne and signed by her on Dec. 24, which The Enterprise obtained through a Freedom Of Information Law request, Sherman wrote, “(a building permit is required for the installation of a wood stove) and portable heaters are only to be used as supplemental heat.”  A window in one of the bedrooms was inaccessible, ceasing to be an emergency exit, and a rear addition area should not be used as a bedroom, the notice says; the trailer was also lacking smoke detectors, carbon monoxide alarms, and a properly operating rear door.

On Jan. 8, Brenda VanAlstyne was issued a building permit to install a $1,000 woodstove.

“I believe those issues have been addressed with the Berne town building department and I don’t believe those issues exist with the residence,” Jeffrey Burken, her attorney, said in court Wednesday.

Maney said that their biological mother was not able to have custody of the children “for health reasons.” When asked whether she was thinking about filing a custody petition, Christine White’s attorney, Ruth Supovitz, said they are continuing to discuss it as a possibility.

The parents, Jayson and Christine White, who live separately, were allowed to continue with supervised visits.

“Mr. White has visited his children consistently,” said Kennedy. “They appear to have a strong bond, between him and his children.” He said the same of their mother, but she has had trouble visiting because of medical and transportation issues.

Michelle Sweet, who told the judge she was the children’s great aunt on the VanAlstyne side, petitioned to have custody of the two girls, denied Wednesday morning after the attorneys in the case expressed reservations and opposition.

“We don’t really have any information about her at this point,” Kennedy said.

“My client is concerned about broader exposure for the children,” said Supovitz. Jayson White’s attorney, too, said he opposes the petition.

A letter was sent to the court by Jayson White’s mother in California, Mary Rotgers, the children’s grandmother, but it was dismissed because it was not in the form of a petition, Judge Maney said.

Alternate Public Defender Leah Walker Casey, representing Jayson White, said Wednesday he would withdraw his petition. The judge confirmed it was withdrawn and dismissed.

“He sees a long road,” Casey told Maney. “He hasn’t given up on ultimately being reunited with his children.”

"Kenneth’s Army"

Eager to hear the outcome of the hearing on Wednesday, the five women who stood across the street from the courthouse and held signs with messages for justice for Kenneth White and his sisters watched television cameramen and newspaper photographers circle the courthouse doors waiting for Brenda VanAlstyne. They sighed with relief when they learned that custody had not been granted to any family members.

“It’s not just the Whites or the VanAlstynes, it’s the environment,” said Heather Bier from East Durham. “It wasn’t suitable for a pet.” She said they want to see the girls adopted by another family.

“The state needs to stay with them,” she said.

The women are members of what they call “Kenneth’s Army,” a group organized through Facebook with a mission of advocating for children who face abuse.

The group’s leader, Michelle Fusco, said it has about 15 members from the Hilltowns, and dozens more from surrounding areas. Online, 451 are members.

In the days that followed the arrest, a memorial page on Facebook titled “Lights for Kenneth White” appeared and a candlelight vigil followed at the Berne school, attended by a crowd that police estimated at 900. But Fusco, a waitress and former school board member, saw the remembrance and grief turn into anger at White’s family as people continued to post on the memorial page.

“I felt that wasn’t an appropriate place to talk about those things,” she said. And so she started the group “Justice for Kenneth White, safety for his sisters,” where people have shared news stories of child abuse across the country.

“Number one, we want to keep his memory alive, and we wanted to make sure his sisters remain safe and hopefully never go back to anyone in that family again,” Fusco said of Kenneth White.

Asked about what abuse they point to in the VanAlstyne trailer, Fusco said they feel the children were failed by the family and child protective services, which should have been more involved.

“We don’t know anything other than what anybody has seen on the news,” she said.

The group is planning several events to raise funds for an annual scholarship they hope to award to a graduating Berne-Knox-Westerlo student who plans to work in social services.

The remaining money will go toward a memorial fund started by the Albany County Sheriff’s officials for Christine and Cheyanne White.

A dinnertime fundraiser was held on Jan. 17 at Maggie’s Sports Bar on Western Avenue in Guilderland to support the trust set up for the two girls. The owner, Maggie Smith, said she was approached with the idea by friends who know the sheriff and his memorial fund.

With donated food, prizes, and cab rides, the event raised a total of $5,500, Smith said, with more than 220 diners. She said she hopes to have a golf tournament in the summer to benefit the sisters.

Donations may be made to the memorial fund at any M&T Bank branch, depositing to the “County of Albany Kenneth White Memorial Fund,” or by dropping it off at any of the sheriff’s stations — at 16 Eagle Street, Room 79 in Albany; at 58 Verda Ave. in Clarksville; or at the Albany County International Airport, 737 Albany Shaker Road in Albany.

For the months ahead, “Kenneth’s Army” is planning a potluck dinner in April, a motorcycle run in Thacher Park on June 6, and a memorial walk in Thacher Park on Aug. 22, Kenneth White’s sixth birthday.

Part of its platform is a bill sought by Sheriff Apple that would adjust the balance between the privacy of child protective services records and the needs of law-enforcement agency in an urgent investigation.

Albany County District Attorney David Soares told The Enterprise on the day of Tiffany VanAlstyne’s arrest that he has no criticism of the system, where a court order is required to obtain health records for an investigation.

One of the women holding a sign Wednesday was from the Hilltowns. Dawn Gibson, whose children, ages 7 and 9, attend Berne-Knox-Westerlo schools and knew Kenneth White, said her family lives a half-mile from the VanAlstynes in Knox, but she never met or talked to the family.

None of the women had personal connections to the case, but said the story compelled them to join “Kenneth’s Army.”

“I feel as if he was my little boy, and I think all of us feel that way,” said Fusco.