Bio

Andre Rand was born as Frank Rushan on March 11, 1944, in Manhattan, New York. He grew up in Ithaca, New York. During the early 1960s, he served in the Army. After his time in the military, he worked at the Willowbrook State School, a facility for people with disabilities, from 1966 to 1968. After leaving this job, he changed his name to Andre Rand.

Rand held various odd jobs, including running a sign-painting business on Staten Island. He lived in several places, such as rooming houses, shelters, and makeshift campsites on the grounds of Willowbrook. People in the area described him as friendly, well-spoken, and knowledgeable.

His first serious encounter with the law occurred on May 25, 1969. Rand was arrested for trying to kidnap and sexually assault a nine-year-old girl in the Bronx. He pled guilty to sexual abuse and served sixteen months in prison. He was released on parole in January 1972. Following his release, Rand changed his name again, this time to Andre Rand.

After his release, Rand faced several minor legal issues, including three more arrests for offenses such as burglary. He became linked with the disappearances of several children during this time. In 1972, he was working as a painter in Staten Island when five-year-old Alice Pereira disappeared from her flat. However, the police did not have enough evidence to charge him.

Rand was questioned again in 1981 regarding the disappearance of seven-year-old Holly Hughes, but once more, he was released without charges due to a lack of evidence. In 1983, he made headlines when he took eleven children from a YMCA on Staten Island for an unauthorized trip to Newark, New Jersey. He was arrested for unlawful imprisonment and served ten months in jail, getting out in August.

Throughout the years, Rand lived in various temporary lodgings. By 1987, he was living in a makeshift shelter close to where twelve-year-old Jennifer Schweiger would later disappear. Witnesses reported seeing Rand with her on the day she went missing. This connection, along with other incidents from his past, led to his arrest for kidnapping and, later, murder.

Murder Story

In 1972, five-year-old Alice Pereira disappeared from her home in Staten Island, New York. Andre Rand was working in the area at the time, but there was not enough evidence to charge him. Nine years later, in July 1981, seven-year-old Holly Hughes went missing. Rand was questioned due to his previous arrests, but again, he was released without charges.

On January 9, 1983, Rand was arrested after he unlawfully imprisoned eleven children in a van and took them on an outing without parental consent. He was sentenced to ten months in jail for this incident. After his release, he became a suspect when ten-year-old Tiahese Jackson disappeared in August 1983.

The most notable case occurred on July 9, 1987, when twelve-year-old Jennifer Schweiger went missing. As a child with Down syndrome, her disappearance drew significant attention. Witnesses reported seeing Rand with her shortly before she vanished. He was arrested on August 4, 1987, and initially charged with her kidnapping. During the investigation, Jennifer's body was discovered in a shallow grave close to Rand's campsite on the grounds of the abandoned Willowbrook State School, where he had lived for several years.

Following the discovery of her body, Rand faced a first-degree murder charge. He was convicted of kidnapping Jennifer Schweiger in 1989 and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Despite the conviction, evidence tying him to other missing children remained uncertain. Authorities continued to link him to the disappearances of Tiahese Jackson and Holly Hughes, but he was never convicted in those cases. Rand's past and alleged involvement in these kidnappings haunted the community of Staten Island for years.