Andre Rand

Last updated

Andre Rand
Born
Frank Rostum Rushan

(1944-03-11) March 11, 1944 (age 80)
New York, New York, U.S.
Other namesThe Pied Piper of Staten Island
Cropsey
Criminal statusIncarcerated
Conviction(s)
Criminal charge
Penalty
  • 4 years in prison (1969)
  • Ten months in jail (1983)
  • 25 years to life in prison (1988, 2004)
Details
Victims2 confirmed
6+ suspected [1]
Span of crimes
1969–1987
State(s)New York
Location(s) Staten Island and South Bronx (confirmed)
Brooklyn (suspected)

Andre Rand (born Frank Rostum Rushan; March 11, 1944), also known as Frank Bruchette and dubbed the Pied Piper of Staten Island, is an American convicted child kidnapper, sex offender and suspected serial killer who is currently serving two sentences of twenty-five years to life in prison for the abductions of two girls, age 7 and 12, on Staten Island, New York. [2] He is eligible for parole in 2037. Rand is the subject of the 2009 documentary Cropsey , which speculates that he may have been the source of an urban legend known by that name. [3]

Contents

Early life and criminal history

Rand was born Frank Rostum Rushan on March 11, 1944, in New York, New York. According to his younger sister in the 2009 documentary Cropsey , neither she nor her brother were sexually or physically abused as children. [4] Rand's father died when Rand was aged 14, and his mother was institutionalized at Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in Brentwood, New York, where he and his sister would visit her. Between 1966 and 1968, using the name "Frank Bruchette", Rand worked as a custodian, orderly and physical therapy aide at Willowbrook State School, later renamed the Staten Island Development Center. [5] [6]

On May 5, 1969, Rand was arrested in the South Bronx for kidnapping and attempting to rape a nine-year-old girl, whom he had enticed into his car and driven to a vacant lot. Rand removed his clothes and hers, but a passing police car interrupted the crime. Charged with attempted rape, Rand pleaded guilty to sexual abuse and was sentenced to four years. He served sixteen months in prison, gaining parole in January 1972 and legally changing his name to Andre Rand. He logged three more arrests by the end of the decade for "minor" offenses, including burglary.

In 1979, Rand was accused of raping a young woman and a 15-year-old girl, but neither pressed charges. In 1983, driving a school bus, Rand picked up a group of eleven children from a Staten Island YMCA, purchased a meal for them without the consent of any of their parents and took them to Newark Liberty International Airport. None of the children were harmed in this encounter, but Rand was apprehended and served ten months in jail for unlawful imprisonment. [7]

Suspected victims

On July 7, 1972, 5-year-old Alice Pereira vanished from the area around the Tysens Lane Apartments in the 600 block of Tysens Lane on Staten Island. Pereira was playing in the building's lobby with her brother and disappeared around 3:30 p.m. after he briefly left her alone. After that, Pereira might have been seen in a park close to the apartment complex in the New Dorp neighborhood. She has not been seen or heard from since. At 6:15 p.m., Pereira's mother reported her missing. At the time of her disappearance, Pereira's parents were divorced; the girl lived with her mother, and her father lived in Manhattan. [8] [1] Authorities initially believed Pereira's father had taken her, but he was later cleared as a suspect. Rand is the prime suspect in Pereira's case, as he worked as a painter in Tysens Lane Apartments at the time of the disappearance.

Audrey Lyn Nerenberg, 18, was last seen leaving her family's home in the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn on July 5, 1977. [9] Nerenberg had told her mother that she would be returning immediately after going two blocks to purchase cigarettes, but she has never been heard from again. Her hebephrenic schizophrenia had caused her to spend brief periods of time in several healthcare institutions in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens between 1974 and 1977; at the time of her disappearance, she was an outpatient at Kingsboro Psychiatric Center in Brooklyn. On July 4, 1977, the evening before she vanished, Nerenberg travelled with her family to Staten Island to see a movie at the former Jerry Lewis Theater on Forest Avenue. The theatre was adjacent to a campsite that Rand had previously visited. [10] [11]

Ethel Louise Atwell, 42, was last seen October 24, 1978, at the Willowbrook State School, where she worked as a physical therapy assistant. At 6:00 a.m., before she could get from the parking lot into her building on the school's campus, two female employees heard a male voice outside say, "Come on, come on", and Atwell say, "No, you'll beat me." Atwell then screamed. The employees called police after hearing the screams. The parking lot was still dark, the streetlights were off and it was difficult for the employees to see anything. [12] Items belonging to Atwell, including a tan pocketbook, one earring, one black shoe, three black coat buttons and part of her set of dentures were discovered by first responders along the left side of her locked car. About 75 feet (23 m) away in the woods, Atwell's car keys were discovered. No trace of Atwell has been found despite a thorough search of the area. [13]

Shin Lee, 44, was a nurse who had gone missing earlier in 1978 from Willowbrook State School under similar circumstances to Atwell. She was reported missing on July 20 and was last seen walking home from the campus towards her home close to midnight. Lee was found murdered by strangulation and buried in a shallow grave near a wooded area on facility grounds on August 6, only two months prior to Atwell's disappearance. Atwell and Lee are suspected victims of Rand, though there is no concrete evidence linking him to either incident. [14] [15]

Holly Ann Hughes, 7, was last seen July 15, 1981, on Staten Island near Richmond Terrace and Park Avenue. Her mother sent her to the Port Richmond Deli two blocks away to purchase a bar of Ivory soap, and she was last seen buying it around 9:30 p.m. She never returned home and has never been heard from again. A month after Hughes' disappearance, her mother, Holly Cederholm, received a phone call from a man who identified himself as "Sal" who informed Cederholm that he was imprisoning the child and asked that they meet so that Cederholm could engage in sex acts for the camera in exchange for Hughes' safe return. [16]

Cederholm went with detectives to meet Sal at Penn Station in New York City, but he never showed up. She stated that she never believed Sal really had Hughes; by this time, she thought Hughes was dead. In January 2002, authorities examined the yard of Rand's former Staten Island home on Vreeland Street, but they were unable to find any evidence pertaining to Hughes' case. Shortly after Hughes vanished, police questioned Rand and searched his car, but they did not prosecute him until twenty years later. Cederholm identified Rand's voice as the same voice she heard during the extortion phone call. Witnesses claimed to have seen Rand's green Volkswagen circle the business where Hughes vanished in 1981. [17]

Witnesses saw Hughes in Rand's car. He acknowledged playing hide-and-seek with Hughes on the day she vanished and gave her money to buy soap because she was "filthy", but he claims to have left her before she vanished. Authorities also determined that Rand's aunt lived in the same Port Richmond apartment building where Hughes' family resided in 1981. Rand was convicted of kidnapping Hughes in October 2004. Rand was never charged with the child's murder due to a lack of evidence. He was sentenced to twenty-five years to life in prison. He is also serving twenty-five years to life for the Schweiger kidnapping. The second sentence made it extremely unlikely that he would ever be freed. [1] [17]

On August 14, 1983, twelve days after Rand was released from prison, 11-year-old Tiahease Jackson was last seen leaving the Mariners Harbor Motel on Forest Avenue in Staten Island. At 1:30 p.m., while Jackson's mother was asleep, another resident of the hotel sent Jackson out to purchase chicken wings from the Crown Supermarket in the 900 block of Richmond Avenue. Jackson never returned to the hotel and has never been heard from again. Her mother woke up at 4:30 p.m. and, discovering her daughter had been missing for three hours, immediately called police. Having both passed lie detector tests, Jackson's mother and uncle were ruled out as suspects in her disappearance. Andre Rand had a campsite at the Baron Hirsch Cemetery less than one-half mile (800 m) from the Mariners Harbor Motel, and Jackson's mother said she had seen a man matching his description loitering in the motel's parking lot. Although Rand was interrogated, no charges were filed. [1] [18]

Hank Gafforio, a 22-year-old native of Staten Island had gone out drinking on June 8, 1984. He first went to Mugs Away, but was declined service. After that, he went to the Spa Lounge in the Port Richmond neighbourhood and remained there until it closed at 4:00 a.m. Before going missing, he was spotted at the diner with Rand. Gafforio vanished without a trace. At 7:00 p.m., he was reported missing. Gafforio was described as being "slow" and had an intelligence quotient in the 70s. Gafforio lived with his parents and three brothers in the 90 block of Heberton Avenue, on the same block as Rand and just around the corner from Hughes' residence. His body has never been found. [19]

12-year-old Jennifer Schweiger, born with Down syndrome, was reported missing on July 9, 1987. Witnesses spotted Schweiger walking with Rand. Her body was found underground after a 35-day search. While combing the area around Willowbrook State School, a particular spot caught the eye of retired New York City firefighter George Kramer. He returned with the police, the entire body was unearthed from the shallow grave, and the remains were positively identified as those of Schweiger. Police searched the grounds for evidence and found one of Rand's makeshift campsites in proximity to Schweiger's grave. [1] [20]

Convictions

In 1988, Rand was charged with the kidnapping and first-degree murder of Schweiger. The Staten Island jury could not reach a verdict on the murder charge, but convicted Rand of the first-degree kidnapping charge. He was sentenced to twenty-five years to life in prison. He would have been eligible for parole in 2008 if not convicted of a second kidnapping. According to the documentary Cropsey, some people along with detectives speculated that Rand may have been involved with Satanism and provided the children to be sacrificed. There were people who also thought that Rand was not alone in the commission of his crimes and many believed he was passing the children around to his friends in the underground network of homeless and mentally disabled people living in the tunnel systems of the former Willowbrook state school.

Officers and inmates at the prison where Rand is currently incarcerated testified regarding conversations in which he allegedly bragged about his paedophiliac exploits. He reportedly confessed Hughes' murder to an inmate and compared himself to the serial killer Ted Bundy. In 2004, Rand was again brought to trial, this time charged with the kidnapping of Holly Ann Hughes twenty-three years earlier. There is no statute of limitations in New York for first-degree kidnapping, which made this charge possible. A jury convicted Rand of the kidnapping in October 2004, and he was sentenced to another consecutive twenty-five years to life in prison. He will become eligible for parole in 2037, when he will be 93.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sante Kimes</span> American murderer, slaver, and criminal (1934–2014)

Sante Kimes also known as the Dragon Lady, was an American murderer, con artist, robber, serial arsonist, and possible serial killer who was convicted of two murders, as well as robbery, forgery, violation of anti-slavery laws and numerous other crimes. Many of these crimes were committed with the assistance of her son, Kenneth Kimes. They were tried and convicted together for the murder of Irene Silverman, along with 117 other charges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willowbrook State School</span> Former institution for intellectually disabled children

Willowbrook State School was a state-supported institution for children with intellectual disabilities in the Willowbrook neighborhood of Staten Island in New York City, which operated from 1947 until 1987.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh</span> 1986 disappearance of woman in London

Susannah Jane Lamplugh was a British estate agent reported missing on 28 July 1986 in Fulham, London, England, United Kingdom. She was officially declared dead, presumed murdered, in 1993. The last clue to Lamplugh's whereabouts was an appointment to show a house in Shorrolds Road to someone she called Mr. Kipper. The case remains unsolved with Lamplugh still missing, and is considered the world's biggest-ever missing person’s inquiry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disappearance of Amy Lynn Bradley</span> Unsolved 1997 disappearance of 23-year-old American woman

Amy Lynn Bradley is an American woman who went missing during a Caribbean cruise on the Royal Caribbean International cruise ship Rhapsody of the Seas in late March 1998 while en route to Curaçao. Her whereabouts remain unknown to this day. She was a 23-year-old Longwood University graduate at the time of her disappearance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pilgrim Psychiatric Center</span> Hospital in New York, U.S.

Pilgrim Psychiatric Center, formerly known as Pilgrim State Hospital, is a state-run psychiatric hospital located in Brentwood, New York. Nine months after its official opening in 1931, the hospital's patient population was 2,018, as compared with more than 5,000 at the Georgia State Sanitarium in Milledgeville, Georgia. At its peak in 1954, Pilgrim State Hospital could claim to be the largest mental hospital in the U.S., with 13,875 patients. Its size has never been exceeded by any other facility, though it is now far smaller than it once was.

Green Haven Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison in New York, United States. The prison is located in the Town of Beekman in Dutchess County. The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision lists the address as Route 216, Stormville, New York 12582. This prison housed New York's execution chamber during the time the state briefly had the death penalty in the post-Furman era. It was originally a federal prison and now houses maximum security inmates. Green Haven Correctional Facility also operated a Hot Kosher Foods Program; but no longer does as of 2020. However, because of this, the prison had a large Jewish population. Yale Law School operates the Green Haven Prison Project, a series of seminars among Yale law students and Green Haven inmates on law and policy issues concerning prisons and criminal law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Hannah Williams</span> Schoolgirl murdered in London, England

On 21 April 2001, Hannah Williams, a 14-year-old English schoolgirl was murdered after going missing during a shopping trip in Dartford, Kent. Williams's body was discovered on 15 March 2002 at a cement works in an industrial area of Northfleet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franklin Delano Floyd</span> American murderer (1943–2023)

Franklin Delano Floyd was an American murderer, rapist, and death row inmate. He was convicted of the 1989 murder of Cheryl Ann Commesso, as well as the kidnapping of 6-year-old Michael Anthony Hughes, who he claimed was his son, from his elementary school in Choctaw, Oklahoma. Floyd was also considered a person of interest in the 1990 hit-and-run death of his second wife and kidnapping victim Sharon Marshall, mother of Michael Anthony Hughes. It was later discovered that before becoming his wife, Sharon had been raised by Floyd from an early age as his daughter and was kidnapped by Floyd as a child.

Joana Isabel Cipriano Guerreiro was a Portuguese child who disappeared on 12 August 2004 from Figueira, a village near Portimão in Portugal's Algarve region. An investigation by the Polícia Judiciária (PJ), Portugal's criminal police, concluded that she had been murdered by her mother, Leonor Cipriano, and her uncle, João Cipriano, after witnessing them engaged in incestuous sex. Joana's body was never found; there is no tangible evidence she is dead.

On 19 February 2008, nine-year-old Shannon Louise Matthews was reported missing in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, England. The search for her became a major missing person police operation which was compared to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Shannon was found alive and well on 14 March 2008 at a Batley Carr house belonging to 39-year-old Michael Donovan. Donovan was the uncle of Craig Meehan, the boyfriend of the kidnapped girl's mother, Karen Matthews.

<i>Cropsey</i> (film) 2009 American film

Cropsey is a 2009 American documentary film written and directed by Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio. The film initially begins as an examination of "Cropsey", a boogeyman-like figure from New York City urban legend, before segueing into the story of Andre Rand, a convicted child kidnapper from Staten Island whose known or suspected crimes in the 1970s and '80s may have inspired or been blamed on Cropsey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ireland's Vanishing Triangle</span> 1980s-1990s disappearances of women

Ireland's Vanishing Triangle is a term commonly used in the Irish media when referring to a number of high-profile disappearances of Irish women from the late 1980s to the late 1990s. Several other women were also murdered within the triangle and their cases remain unsolved as well. All of the cases appeared to share some common characteristics. The women's ages range from their late-teens to late-30s, they disappeared inexplicably and suddenly, and no substantial clues or evidence of their fate has ever been found despite large scale searches and campaigns by the Gardaí to find them. Gardaí believe their remains are likely to be buried in remote fields, bogs and forests. The triangle is in the eastern part of the island, roughly the boundaries of Leinster, in an 80-mile area outside Dublin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disappearance of Melissa Brannen</span> 1989 missing person case

The disappearance of Melissa Brannen occurred on December 3, 1989, at the Woodside Apartments in Lorton, Virginia, United States. The five-year-old daughter of Michael and Tammy Brannen, she was raised by her single mother who lived in the complex. She disappeared while attending a party held at the complex for its residents. Caleb Daniel Hughes, a handyman for the complex, was convicted of abduction with the intent to defile and sentenced to 50 years in prison. Her body has never been found, she has never been proven to be dead, and murder charges have never been filed. The case is considered an unsolved homicide by local police.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Jessica Heeringa</span> 2013 disappearance and murder case in Michigan, U.S.

Jessica Lynn Heeringa was a 25-year-old woman from Norton Shores, Michigan, who disappeared from the Exxon gas station where she was working on the night of April 26, 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disappearance of Suzanne Lyall</span> 1998 missing person case

On the night of March 2, 1998, Suzanne Lyall, an undergraduate at the State University of New York at Albany, left her job at the Babbage's in Crossgates Mall in the nearby suburb of Westmere after the store had closed. She is believed to have taken a city bus from the mall back to the university's Uptown Campus, where a classmate has said she saw Lyall get off the bus at Collins Circle, a short walk from her dorm. She has not been seen since.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disappearance of Leigh Occhi</span> 1992 American missing teenager case

Leigh Marine Occhi is an American who vanished under mysterious circumstances as a teenager at her home in Tupelo, Mississippi, during Hurricane Andrew. Her mother, Vickie Felton, returned home on the morning of August 27, 1992, to find Occhi missing and evidence of blood in the house.

Ashley Nicole Summers was 14 years of age when she disappeared near her home in Cleveland, Ohio in early July 2007. Her whereabouts remain unknown, as there have not been any verified sightings of Summers since her disappearance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disappearance of Marjorie West</span> American child who disappeared on May 8, 1938

Marjorie West is a four year old American child who went missing from McKean County, Pennsylvania on May 8, 1938. Her disappearance was heavily covered by both local and national media, but her whereabouts have never been ascertained. In 2018, The Guardian, a British daily newspaper, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a nonprofit organization established by the United States Congress, referred to Marjorie West's disappearance as "the great unsolved mystery of the missing". A local publisher claims to have solved the mystery, but their solution has never been independently confirmed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Kondro</span> American serial killer and kidnapper

Joseph Robert Kondro, known as The Longview Serial Killer, was an American suspected serial killer implicated in the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of three children in or near Longview, Washington – 8-year-old Rima Traxler, 12-year-old Kara Rudd and 8-year-old Chila Silvernails – in the 1980s and 1990s.

Royal Russell Long was an American convicted kidnapper and suspected serial killer and serial rapist who was given two life sentences for abducting two girls. Long is also a possible suspect in the disappearances and murders of a number of young women and girls in Wyoming and Oklahoma along with several other cases throughout Colorado and Missouri.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Evans, Heidi. 'Hannibal Lecter of Staten Island' Sex fiend trial revisits '80s case. www.nydailynews.com, September 8, 2002. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
  2. ↑ "Inmate Information". New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
  3. ↑ Castle, Steve (January 20, 2017). "Cropsey: The Terrifying Staten Island Urban Legend That Sprang to Life". The-Line-Up.com. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  4. ↑ Zeman, Joshua & Brancaccio, Barbara. Cropsey. Antidote Films, 2009. Film. 1:07:49.
  5. ↑ Purdum, Todd (August 6, 1987). "Homeless Man Seized In Case Of Missing S.I. Girl". New York Times.
  6. ↑ "Willowbrook: The Last Great Disgrace." Archived March 2, 2014, at the Wayback Machine www.sproutflix.org. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
  7. ↑ Heidel, Jamie. "Andre Rand: The Real Serial Killer Behind the Staten Island Urban Legend". Yahoo Voices. Yahoo. Archived from the original on January 16, 2014. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
  8. ↑ "Alice Pereira". Charley Project. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
  9. ↑ "Case File 104DFNY". The Doe Network. February 3, 2015 [December 20, 2006]. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Have you seen this child?" . Retrieved May 1, 2013.
  11. ↑ "The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)" . Retrieved May 1, 2013.
  12. ↑ "Case File 3292DFNY". The Doe Network. February 3, 2015 [December 20, 2006]. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  13. ↑ "Ethel Louise Atwell". The Charley Project. Retrieved August 31, 2015.
  14. ↑ STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE - Body found in Willowbrook believed to be missing nurse, 1978-08-07
  15. ↑ STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE - Willowbrook nurse's friends shocked over her murder, 1978-08-107
  16. ↑ "Case File 136DFNY". The Doe Network. February 3, 2015 [December 20, 2006]. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  17. 1 2 "Holly Ann Hughes". Charley Project. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
  18. ↑ Joann. "Tiahease Tiawanna Jackson ** Staten Island, NY * 1983". New York State Missing Persons. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
  19. ↑ Zeman, Joshua. "The Missing Children". Joshua Zeman. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
  20. ↑ Neuffer, Elizabeth (August 14, 1987). "Body Unearthed on S.I. Is That of Missing Girl". New York Times. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.