Upstate NY Woman Admits Killing Cousin In Her Parents' Care

ALBANY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A 20-year-old upstate New York woman has admitted strangling her 5-year-old cousin who had been in her parents' care and then discarding his body along a road before calling in a false report that two masked intruders took him from their home.

Tiffany Van Alstyne pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree murder for the killing of 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 Van Alstyne on Dec. 18 touched off a search for the boy.

Authorities said Van Alstyne initially told police two men wearing black ski masks entered the house, pinned her to the floor, took the child and then drove off in a pickup truck.

Police issued an AMBER Alert less than a half-hour later. The alert was later canceled when a search dog led investigators to his body in a culvert not far from the home. Authorities said Van Alstyne covered the boy with snow to conceal the crime.

Kenneth's mother lives elsewhere in New York and his father lives in Massachusetts, police said. Van Alstyne's parents had been the legal guardians of Kenneth, his twin sister and a 4-year-old sister.

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