Melisa Brady Sloan 23, 05/01/1994, Orlando FL

sarahhod · 03-18-2009, 08:11 AM

Missing 15 years later
Bardstown mom refuses to give up

3/17/09

By STEPHANIE HORNBACK

When Merle Brady’s husband, Frank Brady, was murdered in 1991, his body wasn’t discovered for several days. So when her youngest daughter uncharacteristically didn’t answer her phone less than three years later, Brady didn’t waste any time. She went to the police after just two days.

Now, 15 years later, Melisa Brady Sloan, a 1988 graduate of Bardstown High School, is still missing, and Brady is still determined to find her.

“With Frank, I know that he’s not coming back. With Melisa, I still have hope that she’s still alive, somewhere, someplace,” Brady said.

She hopes the latest effort to locate her daughter will provide the missing piece to the puzzle. A video about Sloan premiered on www.themissingtv.com last week. Also on YouTube, it has gotten some hits from Washington state.

That’s where the “person of interest” in Sloan’s disappearance lives, said Detective Andre Boren with the Orlando, Fla., Police Department. Boren revisited some cold cases and reopened Sloan’s file in 2007. He contacted her mother and sisters, Michele Walker and Melanie Drury, encouraging them to contact media outlets and start Web sites to get Sloan’s name back on the public conscience. He also met them in Louisville to get DNA samples, which were entered in the FBI’s missing-persons database, and hear their story in person.

Brady is used to telling it.

On a spring Saturday in 1994, Brady called Sloan, as she did every Saturday. But on this one, Brady couldn’t reach her.

“I kept calling Melisa’s number and calling and calling, and finally, John Sloan answered,” Brady said.

John Sloan was Melisa’s husband. They met in 1993 at Tri-County Hospital outside Louisville, where they worked. She was a nurse, he a security guard. They dated briefly before marrying and moving to Orlando so John Sloan could attend a motorcycle mechanic school.

Melisa Sloan’s family was “extremely suspect” of the quick romance, Drury wrote in an e-mail to CNN’s “Nancy Grace Show,” which they hope will air their story. Their suspicions were confirmed when Melisa Sloan filed domestic abuse charges against her husband. He was arrested, and she moved back to Kentucky. She eventually returned, however, and when she didn’t answer the phone on Derby Day, 1994, her family feared the worst.

John Sloan told them Melisa would call them when she was ready. When they still hadn’t heard from her the following Monday, Brady and Walker filed a missing-person’s report at Bardstown Police Department. Officers contacted the Orlando Police Department, which sent detectives to the Sloans’ apartment. The only evidence they found that a female had ever lived there was a bathrobe hanging on the bathroom door, Boren said. All of Melisa Sloan’s possessions, other than her cat and car, were gone.

John Sloan told investigators his wife had left him for another man, Boren said. She was scheduled to testify against him on the domestic abuse charge the following month.

Officers with cadaver dogs searched the wooded area behind the Sloans’ apartment complex, but found nothing. There has been no activity on Melisa Sloan’s driver’s license, Social Security number or nursing license since her disappearance, Boren said.

It’s as though she vanished off the face of the Earth, Brady said.

Her daughter went missing two-and-a-half years after Brady’s husband was kidnapped at a Sonora truck stop and shot, execution style, in Bullitt County by Michael Dale St. Clair, who had escaped from an Oklahoma prison along with his accomplice, Dennis Gene Reese. Reese pleaded guilty to his involvement and is serving a life sentence. In 1998, a Bullitt County jury convicted St. Clair of Frank Brady’s murder, and in 2005, another Bullitt County jury sentenced St. Clair to death. The case against him is not over, however.

A Hardin County jury convicted St. Clair of kidnapping in 2001 and sentenced him to death. But because of problems created by his wife’s testimony — a person cannot be forced to testify against his or her spouse — the verdict was overturned. After several delays, the trial should resume in June. Brady is putting her family vacation on hold so she can attend.

The frustration of life interrupted has become commonplace for Brady, but it isn’t as acute as it was shortly after Melisa disappeared.

“I would lay in the bed at night and I would cry, I couldn’t sleep, and I would beat the wall,” Brady said. “That was the only means I had of getting out my frustration, because I’d cried ’til I couldn’t cry.”

Along with Drury and Walker, Brady is channeling those feelings into action. They are trying to get Melisa’s story on “America’s Most Wanted,” which helped St. Clair to be captured, and they maintain a Web presence with faith they’ll eventually reach the person who can break the case.

Boren hopes “America’s Most Wanted” will help solve Melisa’s mystery.

“She deserves more than a Web site,” he said.

Boren said John Sloan was granted a divorce two months after Melisa Sloan disappeared. The couple had no children.

Sloan remarried about two years later. His second wife was found dead in front of an Orlando hotel, her death ruled the result of a drug/alcohol overdose. John Sloan now lives in Washington with his wife and children and is a photography consultant for a university, Boren said. Before he married Melisa Sloan, he served in the Gulf War in a Marine reconnaissance unit.

Sloan could not be reached for comment.

Boren said his gut feeling is that Melisa is dead and her remains have not been recovered, but “you still can’t take away Mom’s hope that she might be alive somewhere. I will never take the hope away.”

Brady said she doesn’t know if she could take it if she were to learn that Melisa is dead. She wonders if Melisa has never called because she was abused to the point that she doesn’t know who she is.

She wonders many things.

“I can’t pretend to tell you all the thoughts I have had,” she said. “Is she out there somewhere? Is she still alive? What can I do that I haven’t done?”

Brady has resumed as normal a life as possible since she lost her husband and daughter. She retired from American Greetings in 2007 after 23 years. A member of the Democratic Women’s Club, she enjoys politics, writing and her six grandchildren. She is also active in the Red Hat Society and church, attending the Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral. Brady said she never got angry at God, because she believes it is the evil in the world that took her loved ones away, not Him.

“I don’t say, ‘Why me, God,’ because Frank lost his life and we don’t know what has happened to Melisa,” she said. “I’m still here trying to survive.”

Her memories of Melisa help. She recalled with a laugh a vacation to Myrtle Beach, S.C., when Melisa was a little girl. It was the Fourth of July, Melisa’s birthday, and she always thought the fireworks were for her. She could swim like a fish, Brady said.

“She would swim out in the ocean so far, I couldn’t even see the child. And I’d say, ‘Frank, do something!’” she said.

“She was a beautiful girl.”

http://www.lcni5.com/cgi-bin/c2.cgi?...74335091091042

sarahhod · 03-18-2009, 08:12 AM

Missing Person

Melisa Maureen (Brady) Sloan

Missing since May 1, 1994 from
Orlando, Florida (Orange County)
Classification: Endangered Missing

Date of Birth: July 4, 1970
Age at Time of Disappearance: 23 years old
Description: White Female, Blonde Hair, Brown Eyes

Graduated from Bardstown High School in 1988
Graduated from Spencerian College in 1990

Daughter of Merle and Francis (Frank) C. Brady
Sister of Michele Brady Walker, BHS 1976
Sister of Melanie Brady Drury, BHS 1979

Circumstances of Disappearance

Melisa (Brady) Sloan was last seen on May 1, 1994 at her apartment on South Kirkman Road in Orlando, Florida. According to Melisa's husband, John Sloan, she packed up her belongings and left. Her family reported her missing after not hearing from her. She has not been seen or heard from since. At the time of her disappearance, Melisa was working as a nurse in Orlando, Florida. Investigators

If you have any information concerning this case,
please contact:
Orlando Police Department
Detective Andre Boren
Detective Patrick Schneider
321-235-5300
Please use this information when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Agency Case Number: 94258481
NCIC Number: M-735246058

http://melisasloan.org/

sarahhod · 03-18-2009, 08:13 AM

The Doe Network:
Case File 2393DFFL

Melisa Maureen Sloan
Missing since May 1, 1994 from Orlando, Orange County, Florida
Classification: Endangered Missing

Vital Statistics

Date Of Birth: July 4, 1970
Age at Time of Disappearance: 23 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'4"; 130 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Blonde hair, brown eyes.
AKA: Melisa Brady
Fingerprints: Not available
Dentals: Available
DNA: Available

Circumstances of Disappearance
Melisa Sloan was last seen on May 1, 1994 at her apartment on South Kirkman Road, in Orlando, Florida. Her out-of-state family reported her missing after not hearing from her.
At the time of her disappearance Sloan was working as a nurse. Melisa's Social Security number, credit cards and nursing license have not been used since she went missing.
Melisa was born in Bardstown and graduated from Bardstown High School in 1988, and from Spencerian College in Louisville, KY, two years later. She moved to Florida with her husband in 1993. Police were called to Sloan's home twice while they were in Florida for domestic disturbances. During a subsequent visit by police, the husband told police that Melisa had packed her belongings and left him for another man, and that he last saw her on May 1. He told police he didn't know the identity of the other man or how Melisa could be contacted. While most of Melisa's possessions were gone from the apartment, she didn't take her car and she didn't take her cat. She always kept in contact with her family.
Two jail escapees from Oklahoma kidnapped her father from a truck stop off I-65 in Hardin County and took him to the woods in southern Bullitt County. They shot Frank Brady twice and left him to bleed to death less than three years before Melisa's disappearance.
No one has ever been charged in Melisa's disappearance. John Sloan, who divorced Melisa eight months after she disappeared, is remarried and lives in Bellingham, Washinton and refused to talk to authorities. Foul play has not been ruled out.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2393dffl.html

sarahhod · 03-18-2009, 08:14 AM

Endangered Missing Adult

If you believe you have any information regarding this case that will be helpful in this investigation please contact:
Orlando Police Department at (407) 246-2470

Name:
Melisa Maureen Sloan
Classification:
Endangered Missing Adult Alias / Nickname:
Melisa Brady Date of Birth:
1970-07-04 Date Missing:
1994-05-01 From City/State:
Orlando, FL Missing From (Country):
USA Age at Time of Disappearance:
23 Gender:
Female Race:
White Height:
64 inches Weight:
130 pounds Hair Color:
Blonde Eye Color:
Brown Complexion:
Light Circumstances of Disappearance:
Unknown. Melisa was last seen at her residence in the 1900 block of S. Kirkman Rd. in Orlando, FL. At the time of her disappearance, Melisa worked as a nurse. Foul play is suspected. Investigative Agency:
Orlando Police Department Phone:
(407) 246-2470 Investigative Case #:
94258481 NCIC #:
M-735246058

http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/ga...hp?A200705470S

sarahhod · 03-18-2009, 08:15 AM

http://groups.myspace.com/index.cfm?...7-4b98775011be

03-18-2009, 08:11 AM	#1
sarahhod Super Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: London, UK Posts: 9,439	Melisa Brady Sloan 23, 05/01/1994, Orlando FL Missing 15 years later Bardstown mom refuses to give up 3/17/09 By STEPHANIE HORNBACK When Merle Brady’s husband, Frank Brady, was murdered in 1991, his body wasn’t discovered for several days. So when her youngest daughter uncharacteristically didn’t answer her phone less than three years later, Brady didn’t waste any time. She went to the police after just two days. Now, 15 years later, Melisa Brady Sloan, a 1988 graduate of Bardstown High School, is still missing, and Brady is still determined to find her. “With Frank, I know that he’s not coming back. With Melisa, I still have hope that she’s still alive, somewhere, someplace,” Brady said. She hopes the latest effort to locate her daughter will provide the missing piece to the puzzle. A video about Sloan premiered on www.themissingtv.com last week. Also on YouTube, it has gotten some hits from Washington state. That’s where the “person of interest” in Sloan’s disappearance lives, said Detective Andre Boren with the Orlando, Fla., Police Department. Boren revisited some cold cases and reopened Sloan’s file in 2007. He contacted her mother and sisters, Michele Walker and Melanie Drury, encouraging them to contact media outlets and start Web sites to get Sloan’s name back on the public conscience. He also met them in Louisville to get DNA samples, which were entered in the FBI’s missing-persons database, and hear their story in person. Brady is used to telling it. On a spring Saturday in 1994, Brady called Sloan, as she did every Saturday. But on this one, Brady couldn’t reach her. “I kept calling Melisa’s number and calling and calling, and finally, John Sloan answered,” Brady said. John Sloan was Melisa’s husband. They met in 1993 at Tri-County Hospital outside Louisville, where they worked. She was a nurse, he a security guard. They dated briefly before marrying and moving to Orlando so John Sloan could attend a motorcycle mechanic school. Melisa Sloan’s family was “extremely suspect” of the quick romance, Drury wrote in an e-mail to CNN’s “Nancy Grace Show,” which they hope will air their story. Their suspicions were confirmed when Melisa Sloan filed domestic abuse charges against her husband. He was arrested, and she moved back to Kentucky. She eventually returned, however, and when she didn’t answer the phone on Derby Day, 1994, her family feared the worst. John Sloan told them Melisa would call them when she was ready. When they still hadn’t heard from her the following Monday, Brady and Walker filed a missing-person’s report at Bardstown Police Department. Officers contacted the Orlando Police Department, which sent detectives to the Sloans’ apartment. The only evidence they found that a female had ever lived there was a bathrobe hanging on the bathroom door, Boren said. All of Melisa Sloan’s possessions, other than her cat and car, were gone. John Sloan told investigators his wife had left him for another man, Boren said. She was scheduled to testify against him on the domestic abuse charge the following month. Officers with cadaver dogs searched the wooded area behind the Sloans’ apartment complex, but found nothing. There has been no activity on Melisa Sloan’s driver’s license, Social Security number or nursing license since her disappearance, Boren said. It’s as though she vanished off the face of the Earth, Brady said. Her daughter went missing two-and-a-half years after Brady’s husband was kidnapped at a Sonora truck stop and shot, execution style, in Bullitt County by Michael Dale St. Clair, who had escaped from an Oklahoma prison along with his accomplice, Dennis Gene Reese. Reese pleaded guilty to his involvement and is serving a life sentence. In 1998, a Bullitt County jury convicted St. Clair of Frank Brady’s murder, and in 2005, another Bullitt County jury sentenced St. Clair to death. The case against him is not over, however. A Hardin County jury convicted St. Clair of kidnapping in 2001 and sentenced him to death. But because of problems created by his wife’s testimony — a person cannot be forced to testify against his or her spouse — the verdict was overturned. After several delays, the trial should resume in June. Brady is putting her family vacation on hold so she can attend. The frustration of life interrupted has become commonplace for Brady, but it isn’t as acute as it was shortly after Melisa disappeared. “I would lay in the bed at night and I would cry, I couldn’t sleep, and I would beat the wall,” Brady said. “That was the only means I had of getting out my frustration, because I’d cried ’til I couldn’t cry.” Along with Drury and Walker, Brady is channeling those feelings into action. They are trying to get Melisa’s story on “America’s Most Wanted,” which helped St. Clair to be captured, and they maintain a Web presence with faith they’ll eventually reach the person who can break the case. Boren hopes “America’s Most Wanted” will help solve Melisa’s mystery. “She deserves more than a Web site,” he said. Boren said John Sloan was granted a divorce two months after Melisa Sloan disappeared. The couple had no children. Sloan remarried about two years later. His second wife was found dead in front of an Orlando hotel, her death ruled the result of a drug/alcohol overdose. John Sloan now lives in Washington with his wife and children and is a photography consultant for a university, Boren said. Before he married Melisa Sloan, he served in the Gulf War in a Marine reconnaissance unit. Sloan could not be reached for comment. Boren said his gut feeling is that Melisa is dead and her remains have not been recovered, but “you still can’t take away Mom’s hope that she might be alive somewhere. I will never take the hope away.” Brady said she doesn’t know if she could take it if she were to learn that Melisa is dead. She wonders if Melisa has never called because she was abused to the point that she doesn’t know who she is. She wonders many things. “I can’t pretend to tell you all the thoughts I have had,” she said. “Is she out there somewhere? Is she still alive? What can I do that I haven’t done?” Brady has resumed as normal a life as possible since she lost her husband and daughter. She retired from American Greetings in 2007 after 23 years. A member of the Democratic Women’s Club, she enjoys politics, writing and her six grandchildren. She is also active in the Red Hat Society and church, attending the Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral. Brady said she never got angry at God, because she believes it is the evil in the world that took her loved ones away, not Him. “I don’t say, ‘Why me, God,’ because Frank lost his life and we don’t know what has happened to Melisa,” she said. “I’m still here trying to survive.” Her memories of Melisa help. She recalled with a laugh a vacation to Myrtle Beach, S.C., when Melisa was a little girl. It was the Fourth of July, Melisa’s birthday, and she always thought the fireworks were for her. She could swim like a fish, Brady said. “She would swim out in the ocean so far, I couldn’t even see the child. And I’d say, ‘Frank, do something!’” she said. “She was a beautiful girl.” http://www.lcni5.com/cgi-bin/c2.cgi?...74335091091042 __________________ Friends are like medication, they make you feel better when you're down. xox *As always JUST MY OPINION*

03-18-2009, 08:12 AM	#2
sarahhod Super Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: London, UK Posts: 9,439	Missing Person Melisa Maureen (Brady) Sloan Missing since May 1, 1994 from Orlando, Florida (Orange County) Classification: Endangered Missing Date of Birth: July 4, 1970 Age at Time of Disappearance: 23 years old Description: White Female, Blonde Hair, Brown Eyes Graduated from Bardstown High School in 1988 Graduated from Spencerian College in 1990 Daughter of Merle and Francis (Frank) C. Brady Sister of Michele Brady Walker, BHS 1976 Sister of Melanie Brady Drury, BHS 1979 Circumstances of Disappearance Melisa (Brady) Sloan was last seen on May 1, 1994 at her apartment on South Kirkman Road in Orlando, Florida. According to Melisa's husband, John Sloan, she packed up her belongings and left. Her family reported her missing after not hearing from her. She has not been seen or heard from since. At the time of her disappearance, Melisa was working as a nurse in Orlando, Florida. Investigators If you have any information concerning this case, please contact: Orlando Police Department Detective Andre Boren Detective Patrick Schneider 321-235-5300 Please use this information when contacting any agency with information regarding this case. Agency Case Number: 94258481 NCIC Number: M-735246058 http://melisasloan.org/ __________________ Friends are like medication, they make you feel better when you're down. xox *As always JUST MY OPINION*

03-18-2009, 08:13 AM	#3
sarahhod Super Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: London, UK Posts: 9,439	The Doe Network: Case File 2393DFFL Melisa Maureen Sloan Missing since May 1, 1994 from Orlando, Orange County, Florida Classification: Endangered Missing Vital Statistics Date Of Birth: July 4, 1970 Age at Time of Disappearance: 23 years old Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'4"; 130 lbs. Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Blonde hair, brown eyes. AKA: Melisa Brady Fingerprints: Not available Dentals: Available DNA: Available Circumstances of Disappearance Melisa Sloan was last seen on May 1, 1994 at her apartment on South Kirkman Road, in Orlando, Florida. Her out-of-state family reported her missing after not hearing from her. At the time of her disappearance Sloan was working as a nurse. Melisa's Social Security number, credit cards and nursing license have not been used since she went missing. Melisa was born in Bardstown and graduated from Bardstown High School in 1988, and from Spencerian College in Louisville, KY, two years later. She moved to Florida with her husband in 1993. Police were called to Sloan's home twice while they were in Florida for domestic disturbances. During a subsequent visit by police, the husband told police that Melisa had packed her belongings and left him for another man, and that he last saw her on May 1. He told police he didn't know the identity of the other man or how Melisa could be contacted. While most of Melisa's possessions were gone from the apartment, she didn't take her car and she didn't take her cat. She always kept in contact with her family. Two jail escapees from Oklahoma kidnapped her father from a truck stop off I-65 in Hardin County and took him to the woods in southern Bullitt County. They shot Frank Brady twice and left him to bleed to death less than three years before Melisa's disappearance. No one has ever been charged in Melisa's disappearance. John Sloan, who divorced Melisa eight months after she disappeared, is remarried and lives in Bellingham, Washinton and refused to talk to authorities. Foul play has not been ruled out. http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2393dffl.html __________________ Friends are like medication, they make you feel better when you're down. xox *As always JUST MY OPINION*

03-18-2009, 08:14 AM	#4
sarahhod Super Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: London, UK Posts: 9,439	Endangered Missing Adult If you believe you have any information regarding this case that will be helpful in this investigation please contact: Orlando Police Department at (407) 246-2470 Name: Melisa Maureen Sloan Classification: Endangered Missing Adult Alias / Nickname: Melisa Brady Date of Birth: 1970-07-04 Date Missing: 1994-05-01 From City/State: Orlando, FL Missing From (Country): USA Age at Time of Disappearance: 23 Gender: Female Race: White Height: 64 inches Weight: 130 pounds Hair Color: Blonde Eye Color: Brown Complexion: Light Circumstances of Disappearance: Unknown. Melisa was last seen at her residence in the 1900 block of S. Kirkman Rd. in Orlando, FL. At the time of her disappearance, Melisa worked as a nurse. Foul play is suspected. Investigative Agency: Orlando Police Department Phone: (407) 246-2470 Investigative Case #: 94258481 NCIC #: M-735246058 http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/ga...hp?A200705470S __________________ Friends are like medication, they make you feel better when you're down. xox *As always JUST MY OPINION*

03-18-2009, 08:15 AM	#5
sarahhod Super Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: London, UK Posts: 9,439	http://groups.myspace.com/index.cfm?...7-4b98775011be __________________ Friends are like medication, they make you feel better when you're down. xox *As always JUST MY OPINION*

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