Holly Hughes Missing Person Case

Sep 28, 2009

Oct 06, 2023

Holly

Hughes

52

7

48 inches

50 lbs

60 lbs

White / Caucasian

Female

In the summer of 1981, a seven-year-old girl named Holly Ann Hughes vanished from her neighborhood in Staten Island, New York. On the evening of July 15th, at approximately 9:30 p.m., Holly's mother sent her on a simple errand to the Port Richmond Deli, just two blocks from their home, to buy a bar of soap. Holly was last seen making the purchase at the deli, located near Richmond Terrace and Park Avenue. She was a young girl with brown, shoulder-length hair and blue eyes, and on that night, she was wearing a beige bathing suit, blue shorts, and beige and brown sandals. After leaving the store, Holly never returned home, and an air of uncertainty and fear descended upon the community. The initial investigation into Holly's disappearance was met with criticism from her family, who felt that law enforcement did not take certain witness statements seriously, particularly those from individuals with criminal records. A month after she went missing, a distressing development occurred when Holly's mother, Holly Cederholm, received a phone call from a man calling himself "Sal." This individual claimed to have Holly and made a disturbing demand for her return. Detectives accompanied Cederholm to a meeting point at Penn Station, but the caller never appeared. Cederholm later expressed that she never truly believed the man had her daughter, and had come to fear that Holly was no longer alive. The case remained stagnant for years, a painful open wound for her family and all who knew her. Years later, the investigation focused on a suspect named Andre Rand, a convicted child sex offender with a dark history in the area. It was discovered that Rand's aunt lived in the same apartment building as the Hughes family, and he had reportedly been seen there on the day Holly disappeared. Rand was already a suspect in the disappearances of other children on Staten Island and had been convicted of kidnapping another young girl, Jennifer Schweiger, in 1987. In 2001, authorities charged Andre Rand with the first-degree kidnapping of Holly Ann Hughes. During his trial, witnesses testified to seeing a man matching Rand's description with Holly, and inmates claimed he had confessed to the crime while incarcerated. In October 2004, a jury convicted Rand of kidnapping Holly. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, in addition to the sentence he was already serving. Despite the conviction, Rand never faced murder charges due to a lack of evidence, and he has maintained his innocence. The case of Holly Ann Hughes is a tragic story of a young life cut short. Though a man was held responsible for her abduction, Holly's body has never been found, leaving her family without the closure of bringing her home.

Jul 15, 1981

Staten Island

New York

New York County

10302

25968

New York City Police Department - Missing Persons Squad

New York

New York

New York County

10039

2770 Frederick Douglass Boulevard, New York

2126947781

Local

Law Enforcement

KNMP00005

New York City Police Department - Missing Persons Squad

na

Brown

Blue

Blue

09/03/2026