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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
Authorities also determined that Rand's aunt lived in the same Port Richmond apartment building where Hughes' family resided in 1981.
[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.
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.
Officers and inmates at the prison where Rand is currently incarcerated testified regarding conversations in which he allegedly bragged about his paedophiliac exploits.
In 2004, Rand was again brought to trial, this time charged with the kidnapping of Holly Ann Hughes twenty-three years earlier.
A jury convicted Rand of the kidnapping in October 2004, and he was sentenced to another consecutive twenty-five years to life in prison.