  New massive resonances are predicted in many extensions to the Standard Model
(SM) of particle physics and constitutes one of the most promising searches for
new physics at the LHC. We present a feasibility study to search for new heavy
neutral gauge bosons using vector boson fusion (VBF) processes, which become
especially important as the LHC probes higher collision energies. In
particular, we consider the possibility that the discovery of a $Z'$ boson may
have eluded searches at the LHC. The coupling of the $Z'$ boson to the SM
quarks can be small, and thus the $Z'$ would not be discoverable by the
searches conducted thus far. In the context of a simplified phenomenological
approach, we consider the $Z'\to\tau\tau$ and $Z'\to\mu\mu$ decay modes to show
that the requirement of a dilepton pair combined with two high $p_{T}$ forward
jets with large separation in pseudorapidity and with large dijet mass is
effective in reducing SM backgrounds. The expected exclusion bounds (at 95\%
confidence level) are $m(Z') < 1.8$ TeV and $m(Z') < 2.5$ TeV in the $\tau\tau
j_{f}j_{f}$ and $\mu\mu j_{f}j_{f}$ channels, respectively, assuming 1000
fb$^{-1}$ of 13 TeV data from the LHC. The use of the VBF topology to search
for massive neutral gauge bosons provides a discovery reach with expected
significances greater than 5$\sigma$ (3$\sigma$) for $Z'$ masses up to 1.4
(1.6) TeV and 2.0 (2.2) TeV in the $\tau\tau j_{f}j_{f}$ and $\mu\mu
j_{f}j_{f}$ channels.
