Teen 'Claimed Boy Abducted After Killing Him'

A 19-year-old woman has been charged over the death of her five-year-old cousin, who she was looking after.

Tiffany VanAlstyne is accused of strangling the boy and then calling in a false report that two masked intruders took him from their upstate New York home.

Kenneth White's body was found in the early hours on Friday in Berne, about 35 miles (56km) west of Albany.

Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said VanAlstyne tossed the boy's body "like a piece of trash" into a culvert before making the fake 911 call.

She faces a charge second-degree murder.

VanAlstyne, who is the daughter of Kenneth's legal guardians, told police that two men wearing black ski masks had entered the house and snatched the boy.

She said the abductors pinned her to the floor before taking the child at about 1.30pm on Thursday.

Sheriff Apple declined to comment on a motive.

Kenneth's mother lives elsewhere in New York and his father in Massachusetts.