Episode 2- The 'Pied Piper of Staten Island' Andre Rand

Episode Description- Andre Rand, born Frank Rostum Rushan is a convicted sex offender and suspected serial killer that drifted around Staten Island. He was convicted of first the 1987 kidnapping of Jennifer Schweiger, and then in 2004 the 1981 kidnapping of Holly Anne Hughes. Staten Island filmmakers Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio who both grew up in Staten Island with the urban legend of Cropsey- the urban legend of an escaped mental patient who lived in the abandoned tunnels and buildings of Willowbrook State School felt that the legend became real to them with Jennifer's disappearance. The documentary Cropsey covers the case of Andre Rand and his conviction in both cases, but leaves the viewer with more questions than answers. This episode covers not only the disappearance of  and Holly Anne, but also other cases linked to Rand including Alice Periera, Tiahease Jackson, Hank Gafforio, Sylvia Alice Lwowski, Audrey Lyn Nerenburg, Shin Lee, Ethel Louise Atwell, and Brenda Cecilia Crowley. 

Original Episode Publication Date- March 17, 2023

Date Page Last Updated- June 14, 2024

Andre Rand, born Frank Rostum Rushan, is a convicted child abductor and potential serial killer active in the 1970's and 80's around Staten Island, New York. Rand was born in Manhattan and grew up in Ithaca, New York. His father died when he was 14 and mother was in and out of Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in Brentwood, New York where Rand and his sister would often visit her. He served in the army, but it's unclear how long he served for and what his status was at discharge. Rand would use several aliases throughout his life. Using the name, Andre Bruchette, he worked at Willowbrook State School from 1966 to 1968 as a custodian, orderly, and physical therapy aide.

On May 5, 1969, Rand was arrested in the South Bronx for kidnapping and attempted rape of a 9-year-old girl whom he had coaxed into his car and then drove to a vacant lot. Thankfully, a passing police officer discovered them and intervened. He was sentenced to 4 years but ultimately only served sixteen months in prison after pleading guilty to a lesser charge. He would have three more arrests by the end of the 70's for minor offenses including burglary. In 1979 he was accused of rape of a 15 and a 19-year-old woman, unfortunately neither of them pressed charges against him. In 1981, Rand reportedly tried to entice a nine-year-old girl into his volkswagen with a lollipop but she turned him down. He then followed her home, where she hid from him under a rug while he searched the home for her. No charges would end up being filed against him in this event either. Perhaps one of the more shocking things that Rand did happened in 1983. Rand picked up a group of eleven children from a YMCA on Staten Island, loaded them into a bus, and took them on an adventure. He fed them a meal of hamburgers from White Castle adn then took them to the Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey where they spent the day watching airplanes and playing. The children didn't realize they had actually been kidnapped until after the fact. None of the children were harmed andRand would be arrested after returning to the YMCA five hours later. He served 10 months in jail for unlawful imprisonment. 

A film by Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio covering the disappearance of five children and the connection to Andre Rand after the urban legend from their youth becomes real to them. The film makers grew up in Staten Island, NY with the urban legend of Cropsey. They interview multiple people connected to the case of Andre Rand, some of his acquaintances, as well as share their written contact with Rand himself. 

Jennifer Schweiger was the daughter of Karen and Kenneth Schweiger. On July 9, 1987 Jennifer told her parents she was going to go for a walk and never returned. The community rallied to search for this sweet girl. Donna Cutugno, a local resident of the area, was heavily active in the search and started the volunteer search organization “Friends of Jennifer”. The group searched the grounds, tunnels, and buildings of Willowbrook State School. Donna was interviewed on the Cropsey documentary and said that when they were searching the grounds, there were a lot of people who had previously been patients of Willowbrook that were still living on the grounds. During the initial investigation, a couple of witnesses came forward to authorities stating that they had seen Jennifer walking with a middle-aged man who was pushing a green women’s bike with a basket on the front. One of the people interviewed on the Cropsey documentary was now retired detective Robert Jenson, who said that when this information came forward, he remembered that he had seen Andre Rand at a ShopRite the week prior who left on a green women’s bicycle with a basket on it. He knew it was Rand because he remembered him from a prior case. And so, Rand was taken in for questioning but ended up being released due to lack of evidence. 

Holly Ann Hughes was born January 23, 1974. On July 15, 1981, Holly was sent to purchase soap at a nearby deli at around 9:30 pm by her mother. She was wearing a beige bathing suit, blue shorts, and beige or brown shoes. She had shoulder length brown hair at the time of her disappearance and blue eyes. She did make it to the Port Richmond Deli to purchase the soap but wasn’t seen after that. Her parents were in the process of a custody dispute at the time of her disappearance and her father Peter who was interviewed in the documentary said that he was looked at briefly as a suspect because he and Holly’s mother, also named Holly were not on speaking terms at the time. In the documentary, there is discussion of some pre-trial testimony that was sent to the filmmakers by Rand, where a detective testified that Rand had admitted to him that he had given Holly Ann money for soap because she was “dirty” however Rand wrote in the margins that this never happened and was a fabricated statement. Rand’s car was reported to be in the area, but this makes sense if he lived there or was visiting. He was taken in for questioning at the time, his car was searched, there was no found evidence linking him to the disappearance and he was released. He wouldn’t be charged with Holly Ann’s disappearance until 17 years later in 2001. 

Alice Pereira was born on October 1, 1966. On July 7, 1972, a few months after Rand was released from prison for the attempted sexual assault of the 9-year-old I mentioned earlier, Alice was playing in the lobby of the 600 block of the Tysen’s Lane Apartment Complex with her 8-year-old brother Angelo. Around 3:30 pm, Angelo stepped away for a few brief moments and that was the last confirmed sighting of 6-year-old Alice. Alice had black hair, hazel eyes, and was wearing a pair of blue shorts with gold buttons, a red polo shirt, and red sneakers. She was reported missing by her mother, Inez Pereira around 6:30 pm. Her parents were separated at the time of her disappearance and her father was initially looked at as a suspect but was later cleared. Andre Rand was working as a painter at the apartment complex, and a witness would later come forward saying that Alice was seen walking away with him on the day of her disappearance. He was questioned regarding her disappearance, but because there was no evidence linking him, he was released. Alice’s aunt was interviewed on the Cropsey documentary. Her case is still unsolved, and she has never been found. 

Tiahease Jackson was born October 5, 1972. On August 14, 1983, 10-year-old Tiahease was living with her mother and three siblings at the Mariner’s Harbor Motel on Forest Avenue in Staten Island. They had moved there after their apartment burned down and were planning to move south. Around 1:30 pm, while her mother was napping, another resident of the motel sent Tiahease to purchase chicken wings from the Crown Supermarket on Richmond Ave. Tiahease never returned. She was wearing a dark blue ski jacket with white trim, a white ruffled blouse or sweater, blue Gitano jeans, blue plastic mesh shoes, a gold necklace with a butterfly charm, a silver bangle bracelet on her left wrist, and had two purple combs in her brown hair. She has diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure, and Bright’s disease, a kidney disorder that requires medication and treatment. She also was diagnosed with learning disabilities and her left eye is lazy and would turn inwards. Her mother reported her missing after waking up from her nap a couple hours later and realizing she was gone. Her disappearance was 12 days after Rand had been released from prison for the unlawful imprisonment of the children on the bus. He was viewed as the prime suspect in her case because he had a campsite at the Baron Hirsch Cemetery less than half a mile from the motel and Tiahease’s mother said she had seen a man matching his description loitering in the motel’s parking lot. In the documentary it was reported that her brother would say he saw her talking to a man that “looked like Andre”, but I’m not sure when that report was taken, if it was at the time of her disappearance or after his arrest for Jennifer’s disappearance. Tiahease’s case is still unsolved, and she has never been found. 

Henry Gafforio- Henry “Hank” Gafforio was born December 7, 1961. Hank lived with his parents and three brothers in the 90 block of Heberton Avenue, the same block as Andre Rand and around the corner from another missing child Holly Anne Hughes. Hank went missing on June 9, 1984. He had gone out drinking and was last seen at the Spa Lounge in the Port Richmond area of Staten Island. He had been turned down service earlier at another establishment called Mugs Away. He stayed at Spa Lounge until it closed and that was his last confirmed sighting. He was wearing a red and white striped t shirt, dark blue jeans, and white sneakers. He is mentally disabled with a low IQ, but able to communicate and function at the mental and emotional level of a 15-year-old. Hank was later reported missing around 7:00 pm. One interesting coincidence which was portrayed by some of the retired law enforcement interviewed on the documentary was that Hank was standing behind a news reporter in one of the pieces covering the disappearance of Holly Ann Hughes. However, he lived around the corner from her, so it’s potentially not that surprising since there were a lot of people standing in the background. Unfortunately, they linked this as a connection to Andre Rand, but he was never charged with his disappearance.

Ethel Louise Atwell was born April 6, 1932. She was a mother of four, living in Newark New Jersey but commuting to Staten Island, NY to work at Willowbrook State School as a nurse’s aide. Her son Kenneth on an episode of “Missing” with Kristen Thorne on ABC 7, would describe her as always wanting to help people, that she was a “mom” to the patients, sometimes bringing some of them home for the weekend. On October 24, 1978, Ethel arrived at work, following her usual routine of backing into a parking space that edged up to the woods on the grounds. Two employees called police shortly after this reporting hearing a man’s voice saying, “Come here, come here” and a woman’s voice responding, “No, you’ll hurt me, I’m not going with you, you’ll hurt me” and screams. Ethel’s sons would get a call from Willowbrook State school alerting them that something had happened, and they couldn’t locate Ethel. When her son’s Kenneth and Frank Jr. arrived, they found her car with all the doors open, covered in fingerprint powder, and several of their mom’s belongings on the ground around her car marked including buttons from her jacket, her purse, a shoe, and her dentures. Her keys would be found in the woods, indicating she had been dragged in that direction. Upon further search of the woods, they found a path that had tire tracks embedded in it, that would go through a large hole in a fence big enough for a truck to fit through. She’s not been found and is still considered a missing person.

44-year-old Shin Lee was a registered nurse at Willowbrook State School who was last seen on July 20, 1978 walking home through the woods after her 3pm-11:45 pm shift in building 11 as she regularly did. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find much information on her case, aside from two news articles and her case being mentioned in a video about another potential victim Ethel Louise Atwell. One article referenced that Shin Lee was reported missing by her on July 20th while another one said she wasn’t reported missing until July 22nd.  Police would spend a couple of days searching for her, but she was not found until a few weeks later in August when members from her church and family searched the grounds and her partially decomposed body was found in a shallow grave. The area she was found had been searched multiple times, but police felt that a recent heavy rain had loosened the dirt which led to her being found when she was. Shin Lee had reported receiving a death threat prior to her disappearance from a coworker that she had given a negative evaluation, but that was reportedly unrelated to her disappearance and murder. This case unfortunately remains unsolved.

Brenda Cecilia Crowley was born on October 5, 1963. She lived with her mother in the 100 block of Harbor Road in the New York City borough of Staten Island when she went missing. She went missing sometime in February or March of 1979 or 1980, both listed in sources, as it seems like she had a rather fractured and chaotic childhood. Brenda had seven siblings who all had run away from home at one time or another but tended to come back. Brenda’s mother and her stepfather were both alcoholics and life at home was not good. Brenda had been attending Curtis High School but was expelled as absent without leave in February of 1980. Brenda’s mother told her family that she had filed a missing person’s report, which was not actually done until much later when one of Brenda’s sisters realized it wasn’t completed. The family home would later burn down sometime after 1980. Brenda’s mother was strangled to death by a man she met in a bar in 1981. In 2008, a family member of Brenda approached police and stated that Brenda had been murdered and her body was buried in a backyard in East Islip on Long Island. The backyard was dug up but only dog bones were found. Brenda has not been found. 

Audrey Lyn Nerenberg was born on September 24, 1958 to parents Milton and Evelyn Nerenberg. She had a sister, Brenda and a brother Steven. At the age of 15, Audrey was diagnosed with hebephrenic schizophrenia- a condition also referred to as disorganized schizophrenia which can cause disorganized behaviors or thought patterns, short lasting delusions and hallucinations, and disorganized patterns in speech. Audrey had been hospitalized multiple times at a couple of different psychiatric care facilities from the time of her diagnosis to the time of her disappearance but was improving and being treated as an outpatient and taking a high dose of Thorazine to help treat her schizophrenia. On July 14, 1977, it was the hottest day on record on the east coast, reaching 98 degrees in NYC and leading to a large-scale power failure. To escape the heat, Milton, Evelyn, Steven and Audrey got into the car around 2pm and went to Staten Island where they had heard on the radio that there was power and saw a movie at the Jerry Lewis Theater, then had dinner and enjoyed their day. They arrived home around 10:30pm and went to bed. The next morning started as a normal day. Steven and Brenda went to school. Audrey, due to her condition, was not attending school. She told her family she was going to go for a walk to a store around the corner and a couple blocks away to buy cigarettes. That was the last time she was seen. She was wearing a pair of dungaree shorts, a blue tube top, clear plastic open toe shoes, was carrying a brown shoulder bag, and may have had a sweater tied around her waist as she liked to do. While there’s no official link to Andre Rand in this case, in some sources you will see her listed as a potential victim of his and I’ve included her on here as this is still an open missing person’s case. With disorganized schizophrenia, Audrey at times could repeat previous actions, so there was speculation that she had gotten confused on her walk and could have returned to Staten Island because she had been there the previous day with her family. Andre Rand had a campsite near the Jerry Lewis Theater, which is why she’s listed as a potential victim, it’s not clear to me whether he was officially questioned regarding her disappearance. There’s also speculation that she may still be alive and be at a psychiatric facility listed as a Jane Doe. She’s never been found and is still considered a missing person.

Sylvia Alice Lwowski was born on April 28, 1959. She had blonde hair, hazel eyes, pierced ears, and wore glasses. On September 6, 1975, at the age of 22, Sylvia had plans to go to the movies with her fiancé Charles Joseph Cirronella. She was wearing a white button up sweater, green shirt, brown shoes, a watch, and a heart shaped engagement ring, carrying a brown handbag. Her fiancé would later report that they were on Richmond Ave near the Kmart Plaza when they got into an argument. He stated she threw her glasses against the dashboard of the car and exited the vehicle, stating she would take a bus home. He would later come to her family’s home, letting them know that she had taken off from the car. There is little information found on the case, a couple of sources said it wasn’t really investigated and she was labeled as a runaway. Her case is listed as having suspected foul play involved. There’s no documented connection to Andre Rand other than he lived in a campsite near where she was reported to be last seen. She’s never been found and still listed as a missing person. 

NCMEC. (n.d.). Alice Periera. Retrieved from Missing Kids: https://www.missingkids.org/poster/NCMC/604013/1

NCMEC. (n.d.). Tiahease Jackson. Retrieved from National Center For Missing & Exploited Children: https://www.missingkids.org/poster/NCMC/701777/1

Nerenberg, M. (n.d.). The Story Of Audrey Lyn Nerenberg. Retrieved from The Story of Audrey Lyn Nerenberg: https://miltisnere.angelfire.com

Search Mounts on Staten Island For Girl Missing Since Friday. (1972, July 12). Retrieved from New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/1972/07/12/archives/search-mounts-on-staten-island-for-girl-missing-since-friday.html

Staten Island Advance. (2008, January 9). In search of missing Staten Island girl, detectives dig up backyard in L.I.Retrieved from Staten Island Advance: https://www.silive.com/news/2008/01/in_search_of_missing_staten_is.html

The Charley Project. (2014, September 23). Sylvia Alice Lwowski. Retrieved from The Charley Project: https://charleyproject.org/case/sylvia-alice-lwowski

The Charlie Project. (2010, November 7). Henry Gafforio. Retrieved from The Charlie Project: https://charleyproject.org/case/henry-gafforio

The Charlie Project. (2018, July 13). Holly Ann Hughes. Retrieved from The Charlie Project: https://charleyproject.org/case/holly-ann-hughes

The Doe Network. (2022, March 10). Audrey Lyn Nerenberg. Retrieved from International Center of Unidentified & Missing Persons: https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/104dfny.html

The Doe Network. (2022, May 18). Brenda Cecelia Crowley. Retrieved from International Center for Unidentified & Missing Persons: https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/872dfny.html

The Doe Network. (2022, May 18). Ethel Louise Atwell. Retrieved from International Center for Unidentified & Missing Persons: https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/3292dfny.html

The Doe Network. (2022, May 18). Sylvia Alice Lwowski. Retrieved from International Center of Unidentified & Missing Persons: https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2928dfny.html

Thorne, K. (2023, May 4). 'Missing': The terrifying case of Ethel Louise Atwell, who vanished near Willowbrook woods in 1978. Missing. Staten Island, New York, United States: ABC 7.

Wikipedia contributors. (2024, May 22). Andre Rand. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15:08, June 14, 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Andre_Rand&oldid=1225105035

Willowbrook nurse's friends shocked over her murder . (n.d.). Retrieved from Staten Island Advance: https://archives.library.csi.cuny.edu/~files/Willow_Cipp_PDF/WSSM-2_b3_f6_075.pdf