Psychologist Casey Everett testified Friday that she could upset her nieces, Cheyanne and Christine White, and be emotionally overwhelmed if reunited with them. On Monday, he said her neices resisted seeing her.

Michelle Fusco, the leader of a Facebook group formed to raise awareness of the case, said she felt her group made a difference with its protests outside of court and presence in family court.

Brenda VanAlstyne's attorney, Jeffrey Berkun, argued during the family court trial last week that the county hadn't proven any connection between her daughter's mental health and alleged violence in the home.

The law passed both houses without any opposing votes. It was a minor adjustment to the social services law that deals with access to private records during an investigation of a missing child.

A medical examination performed after the 5-year-old was found dead and his sisters were taken into foster care showed the girls had bruising on their bodies, Judge Gerard Maney said in family court Tuesday.

In the wake of 5-year-old Kenneth White's murder, relatives are battling in court, unsuccessfully, to care for his two young sisters who remain in the county's custody.

Murder can make us pay attention — to things we should have been paying attention to all along.

BERNE — At the darkest time of the year, nine hundred people stood shoulder to shoulder, holding candles and singing. Snow fell lightly Monday night, the flakes turning wet as they landed on faces and mittens and boots while the crowd stood in front of the elementary school at Berne.

They were there to mourn a little boy the vast majority of them did not know. Kindergartner Kenneth White was slain in his home last Thursday, police said, his body pitched over the snow bank across from the trailer where he lived with his twin sister and their younger sister. The 19-year-old daughter of their aunt and legal guardian stands accused of murder. Tiffany VanAlstyne, too, had once attended the school where the crowd gathered.