KNOX — While 5-year-old Kenneth White’s aunt and legal guardian was away for 30 minutes to visit his school Thursday afternoon, he was strangled in his home, police say.

After hours of worries about an abduction, Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple made an emotional announcement Friday afternoon, telling the press that, instead, the kindergartner had been beaten, strangled, and left dead in a culvert by his teenage cousin, Tiffany VanAlstyne.

She has pleaded "not guilty" to the murder charge.

Apple said events unfolded this way: VanAlstyne, 19, called her mother, Brenda VanAlstyne, who was driving toward home, a few minutes away. She told her mother that two men in ski masks broke in, held her down, and took the boy. They  called 9-1-1 to report what Mrs. VanAlstyne thought then was an abduction. Police then issued an Amber Alert for three states.

But interviews with relatives later were contradictory, and Kenneth White’s 45-pound body was found that night across from his family’s trailer on Thacher Park Road when a police dog picked up on the scent.

VanAlstyne was arraigned for second-degree murder in Knox Town Court on Friday afternoon, where she told Judge Jean Gagnon that she takes several medications, including lithium for bipolar disorder.

Kenneth White, Brenda VanAlstyne said just after the arraignment, was Tiffany’s “favorite” and she frequently looked after him.

White was legally under Brenda VanAlstyne’s guardianship since September, Apple said; his biological mother, Christine White, lives in Amsterdam, New York, and his biological father, Jayson White, lives in western Massachusetts.

A kindergartner at Berne-Knox-Westerlo, White lived at 994 Thacher Park Road with Brenda; Tiffany; his twin sister; Cheyanne; his 4-year-old sister, Christine; Kenneth VanAlstyne; and an 18-year-old male whom Apple declined to identify, saying it appeared that Brenda VanAlstyne had taken him in. The relationship between Brenda and Kenneth VanAlstyne wasn’t described by the sheriff.

Kenneth White was signed up to join other children on Dec. 20 at the sheriff’s annual Christmas party, which distributes donated toys to needy children from the Hilltowns.

The two youngest children are now in the custody of the county’s Child Protective Services, Apple said. He said White was last in school on Wednesday.

A letter was addressed to BKW parents on Friday from Joseph Natale, the interim superintendent, offering condolences to family and friends and telling parents, “Your child may be affected by this tragedy even if he or she did not know the student. I encourage you to talk with your child about what has happened.”  The school is offering counseling to students and staff that seek it.

On Thursday morning, Apple said, Kenneth VanAlstyne wasn’t at home in the red and white striped trailer with blue shutters and American flags decorating the outside; he had left at 11 a.m.

Brenda VanAlstyne, 42, had been with Tiffany and the other children, taking them to a doctor’s office for a prescription. She visited Price Chopper, then returned home, Apple said, dropping off Tiffany and the children before going to the school with the 18-year-old to leave items for a Christmas party. Apple said Tiffany had watched over the children before.

White was asphyxiated and strangled, Apple said, and the boy’s head showed blunt-force trauma.

Apple and District Attorney David Soares would not comment on a motive or method of the killing and said they had no reason to believe Tiffany VanAlstyne’s mental health was a factor.

Arraignment

A tall, thin girl, Tiffany VanAlstyne stood before Judge Gagnon’s bench in a red and white striped prison jumpsuit, her ankles and wrists shackled and a chain with a padlock around her waist.

The judge announced the date, Dec. 19, and the time, 2:20 p.m., to a handful of reporters who sat in the gallery.

VanAlstyne was then seated before the judge next to Assistant Public Defender Molly Rhodes. At the table across the aisle sat David Rossi, the chief assistant district attorney for Albany County.

“The reason for an arraignment,” Judge Gagnon said, “is to advise the defendant of their rights and to advise the defendant of the charges against them, to take a plea of guilty or not guilty, and to plan any further proceedings.”

The courtroom was pin-drop quiet as VanAlstyne, who remained expressionless, her brown eyes downcast, was asked to state her name and date of birth.

“Miss VanAlstyne, you’ve been charged with an A-1 felony murder in the second degree,” said Gagnon; the judge said this could carry a sentence of 15 years to life.

She asked if VanAlstyne had any questions; VanAlstyne silently shook her head, no.

“Do you understand the charges?” asked the judge.

“Yeah,” VanAlstyne answered softly.

Rhodes entered a plea of “not guilty” on behalf of VanAlstyne and said she had received a copy of the charges and rap sheet.

The grand jury hearing was set for Dec. 23 with a preliminary hearing on that day at 2 p.m.

VanAlstyne was remanded to Albany County’s jail without bail.

She then retired to a conference room to talk with her lawyer while the judge filled out paperwork.

At 2:35 p.m., the reporters in the gallery were joined by Brenda VanAlstyne, Ken VanAlstyne, and a teenaged boy the family had taken in. The boy leaned protectively against Brenda VanAlstyne.

Tiffany VanAlstyne and Rhodes returned to their table before the judge, and Gagnon asked if she was on any medication.

“I take lithium for my bipolar,” said VanAlstyne as she began to cry. She named another drug she said she takes for her thyroid, and said she thought she also took birth-control pills.

“I take something at night. I don’t know what for,” she said.

Gagnon said she’d make note of the medications and that VanAlstyne would have the opportunity to see a physician at the jail.

As VanAlstyne was escorted out of the courtroom, down the center aisle, she walked past Brenda and Ken VanAlstyne.

“We love you,” Ken VanAlstyne said to Tiffany as her eyes filled with tears.

“It was a shock to me,” said Brenda VanAlstyne of being told her daughter had killed Kenneth White.

Asked why Tiffany may have done it, her mother said, “I have no idea...She just told me two guys took him.” Later, she said, the police told her it was Tiffany who had committed the murder.

Tiffany suffers from bipolar disorder and anxiety and is “very sensitive” when taking her medications, said Brenda VanAlstyne, wiping tears from her eyes.

The judge urged Brenda VanAlstyne to continue her conversation in the hallway outside of the courtroom. “I’m not supposed to be hearing this,” said Gagnon.

As Brenda VanAlstyne left the courtroom, she was engulfed in a scrum of television cameras and reporters. She backed into a corner and soon said, “I can’t do this right now.”

She left the building and drove away with Ken VanAlstyne and the boy who had come with them.

Living conditions

Soares, at the press conference, stressed that the defendant is presumed innocent until his office proves her guilty of the charge, in which he said he is “1,000 percent” confident. He declined to comment when asked about the conditions in which the children lived, referring to a civil investigation that the county’s office of Child Protective Services could pursue.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation in Albany was involved in the investigation when it was considered an abduction case, and has continued to help with questioning people, Apple said; the United States Marshal Service, and the State Police were involved as well.

The county’s Child Protective Services was not forthcoming with information about the family, citing confidentiality of its records. Apple said he would like to speak with local lawmakers about the possibility of writing legislation that would make law enforcement’s access to those records easier in “exigent circumstances.”

For his part, Soares said he has no criticism of the system, where a subpoena is required to obtain health records for an investigation.

“They refused to talk to us,” Apple said of the social services agency, noting investigators were left relying on relatives’ contradictory statements as they hoped to find the boy alive.

Apple also said he would contact the town’s code-enforcement officer, saying the trailer had a woodstove that wasn’t “adequately venting” and a large space heater, near clothing, that appeared dangerous.

The sheriff’s office had responded to the VanAlstyne address many times in the past, said Chief Deputy Kerry Thompson with the county sheriff’s, but not for child abuse. He would not specify the nature of the calls.

“I think there are serious deficiencies in that trailer that put people’s lives in jeopardy,” said Apple.