Melisa Brady Sloan, 23, disappeared from Orlando, Florida, on May 1, 1994. She was a victim of domestic violence at the hands of her husband, John Stewart Sloan. He claimed she left him for another man, but he continuously refused to cooperate with Florida investigators, who never found any trace of Melisa.
Melisa was born on the Fourth of July in 1970 in Bardstown, KY, to Francis “Frank” Brady and Merle Bowman Brady. She graduated from Bardstown High School in 1988 and Spencerian College in Louisville in 1990.
Her Father’s Murder
On September 19, 1991, two inmates – Michael Dale St. Clair, then 34, and Dennis Gene Reese, then 31 – escaped from an Oklahoma jail while awaiting transport to their trials and made their way west. According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, “St. Clair was to be transferred to state prison after being convicted for the murder of his uncle and of a hitman he had hired to kill the uncle when he escaped. Reese was awaiting trial in the strangulation and beating death of a woman in June of that year.”
After fleeing Oklahoma, they drove to Denver, Colorado, and kidnapped a 22-year-old paramedic named Timothy Wayne Keeling. They forced Keeling to drive them to Texas in his yellow 1984 Toyota truck. Keeling’s wife, Lisa, reported her husband missing to Denver police when he failed to return home from the grocery store on September 26.
The next day, Keeling was found shot to death in New Mexico.
Frank Brady, 55, worked as a forklift operator at Barton’s Distillery in Bardstown. He often took drives to relax after a long, hard day at work.
Reese and St. Clair drove Keeling’s truck to Kentucky. On October 6, 1991, they kidnapped Frank Brady from an Interstate 65 truck stop in Hardin County. The men took him to the woods near Lebanon Junction in southern Bullitt, shot him twice in the face and abdomen, and left him to bleed to death. The killers then stole Frank’s maroon Ford Ranger.
At 1 a.m. on October 7, 1991, Kentucky state police and firefighters responded to a fire on Flint Hill Road near Sonora in Hardin County. When they arrived, the fire had partially destroyed a 1984 Toyota truck. That vehicle was registered to Keeling.
Witnesses to the fire told the police they had seen the Toyota truck being driven into the area by a maroon Ford Ranger, later traced to Frank. Trooper Herbert Bennett spotted the Ranger at a Sonora truck stop, followed it onto northbound I-65, and pulled it over. One of the men bailed out of the truck and fired a handgun at Bennett, who escaped injury by lying down in the seat. The man got back into the vehicle and sped away.
Troopers chased the criminal duo until they were able to shoot out two of the truck’s tires. Reese and St. Clair escaped on foot about three miles south of Elizabethtown. Five days later, police issued warrants for kidnapping and capital murder in Bullitt County and attempted murder in Hardin County.
Meanwhile, police contacted Merle Brady, who was unaware that her husband was missing because he often took drives after work. A Bullitt County farmer found Frank’s body at 10 a.m. on October 8, 1991, in a wooded area off Old Boston Road.
FBI agents ultimately recaptured Reese and St. Clair. They were convicted for their crimes and remain in prison.
Frank’s murder devastated his family. But less than three years later, tragedy would strike the Bradys again.
Melisa Sloan Marries
The tragic, untimely death of patriarch Frank Brady forced his family to move on with their lives without him. Melisa worked nights at Tri-County Community Hospital (now Baptist Health Hospital) as a Licensed Practical Nurse. In 1993, she met a hospital security guard named John Stewart Sloan and married him a few months later.
The couple then relocated to Orlando, Florida, settling into an apartment in the 1900 block of South Kirkman Road. The move was for John to attend school to become a motorcycle mechanic.
But the marriage was volatile, with reports of domestic violence. Police had been called twice to the Sloan apartment for domestic disturbances. On the second trip, officers arrested John and charged him with assaulting Melisa. She was due to testify against him the second week of May 1994, but Melisa disappeared before the hearing.
The Disappearance of Melisa Maureen Sloan
Orlando police officers later returned to the Sloan apartment after releasing John from custody. Melisa was not there.
John told them he last saw his wife on May 1, 1994. He stated that Melisa packed all her belongings and left him for another man, although he did not know the man’s identity. He also said he did not know how to contact Melisa.
Melisa’s mother tried calling Melisa but could not reach her for several days. On May 7, Merle finally spoke with John, who said, “She’ll call you when she’s ready,” Melisa’s sister, Melanie Brady Drury, told CNN in 2009.
The Bradys filed a missing person report in Bardstown, KY, and the Bardstown Police Department faxed it to Orlando police. When Orlando officers arrived at the Sloan apartment, Melisa’s beloved cat and her car remained there. Her family said she would never have abandoned the feline. Because of that, both the Bradys and the Orlando police questioned whether Melisa left voluntarily.
Orlando police stated the only other person besides John who saw Melisa was a good friend, a paramedic at the hospital. The two left work together to go to a street fair, and Sloan returned home at 2:30 a.m. (Mikkilineni, 2009)
The next afternoon, Melisa was captured on a video surveillance camera withdrawing $20 from an ATM. She was scheduled to drive to Houston, Texas, and had rented a car at Orlando National Airport. The abandoned rental car was found in Pensacola. Someone had stripped and burned the vehicle. (Good)
Eight months later, John filed for divorce and remarried. His second wife died of an alcohol and drug overdose. He moved to Washington state sometime around 1996, where he still lives with his third wife and children. (Good)
In November 2007, detectives flew to Washington to question John, but he refused to cooperate or speak with them.
In 2009, an anonymous person donated a $10,000 reward for information leading to solving Melisa’s disappearance.
Detectives told the Orlando Sentinel in 2010 they suspect foul play in Melissa’s disappearance. They said they failed to find any traces of her in searches of the woods near her apartment. Since then, there has been little activity in the case.
Melisa’s mother, Merle Brady, died in December at 89.
TCD’s Thoughts
We know who likely killed Melisa. It’s a no-brainer. He refused to cooperate with investigators in Washington and lied about her leaving with another man. It’s a classic lie by husbands who kill their wives.
I’m guessing her body was dumped in the Gulf of Mexico because her rental car was found in Pensacola.
And what about John’s second wife? Overdose, my a$$. I bet he killed her, too. What are the chances it was accidental? Come on.
I hope his third wife is careful. I think her name is Jennifer, but I’m not 100% sure. And she might have worked or still does work at Western Washington University. John is now in his late 50s.
Sources
Good, Meaghan. “Melisa Maureen Sloan.” The Charley Project. https://charleyproject.org/case/melisa-maureen-sloan
Mikkilineni, Rupa. “Nurse Vanished 10 Days Before Domestic Violence
Hearing.” CNN.com, September 7, 2009. https://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/09/07/grace.coldcase.sloan/index.html
“Shootout May Link Missing-Persons Cases.” The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), October 8, 1991.
“State Police Issue Warrants for Escapees.” Lexington Herald-Leader, October 12, 1991.
White, Charlie. “After 14 Years, a Search for Closure.” The Courier-Journal, January 13, 2008.