In the past few weeks, ex-Scientologist Leah Remini has lifted the lid on several scandals within the inner circle of Scientology, but the latest one to plague the religion might be the biggest yet, with the power to ‘bring down the church’.
In a series of statements, backed up by other witnesses, a report has surfaced by journalist and activist, Tony Ortega, that alleges that the wife of Scientology’s leader, David Miscavige, Shelly, has been abducted or kidnapped, reports The Daily Telegraph.
In the report, titled, *Ten Years Gone: Shelly Miscavige, the Wife Scientology Wants Us To Forget Ortega reveals that Shelly, who hasn’t been seen for more than a decade, disappeared under ‘mysterious circumstances’ in 2005.
Ortega’s claims have been publicly backed by ex-Scientologists, Jefferson Hawkins, Scientology’s chief marketing executive, Mike Rinder, the church’s former special affairs director, and Tom DeVocht, the church’s former executive.
These ex-members all claim that after Shelly made expressions of doubt and concern, she disappeared without a trace.
“I knew that she was in deep s—. That was the last conversation I had with Shelly,” Mr Rinder said of his last correspondence with Shelly in 2005.
Shelly disappeared a week later.
Since her disappearance, two missing persons reports have been filed. One from the director of Scientology documentary, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief and Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist, Lawrence Wright, and one from Leah Remini, actress and ex-Scientologist, who recently penned a book, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology.
Both reports were dismissed on the grounds that an LAPD officer had visually sighted Mrs Miscavige during an interview with Mr Miscavige. This reasoning has been rejected by several Scientology analysts who claim corruption, on the basis that since Scientology has held several fundraisers for the LAPD, and that the officer who conducted the interview has been “a participant in numerous Church of Scientology activities”.
Apart from the report by the LAPD, and by David Miscavige himself, Mrs Miscavige has not been sighted by anyone else.
In response to the missing persons reports, the Church released a statement condemning them as a “publicity stunt cooked up by a small band of unemployed fanatics who live on the fringe of the internet”.
“This ill-advised, ludicrous self-promotion and the media inquiries it generated caused an inexcusable distraction for the LAPD. The entire episode was nothing more than a publicity stunt for Ms Remini,” the church wrote.
The church then asserted that Mrs Miscavige was not missing but “working non-stop for the church out of the public eye”.
Shelly Miscavige pictured in 1990.
Most of the theories surrounding the disappearance of Mrs Miscavige point to her being held – against her will – in an underground facility of some sort, a secret underground compound, known as Twin Peaks, Rimforest, Rim of the World, or Crestline, “depending on who you talk to”.
This compound, considered the headquarters of Scientology, where they store the original manuscript of L. Ron Hubbard’s works to protect them from a “nuclear holocaust”, is located in the LA mountains and is where Tony Ortega claims Shelly is being kept.
“The compound is the headquarters for Scientology’s most secretive entity, the Church of Spiritual Technology, where L. Ron Hubbard’s works are stored in underground vaults, so they can survive a nuclear holocaust,” Mr Ortega in his report.
“For the past 10 years — except for a couple of days in the summer of 2007 when she was let out to attend the funeral of her father, Barney Barnett — Shelly has been living and working at CST’s headquarters compound.”
“The astounding thing about Shelly is not that she’s missing, because she isn’t,” Mr Ortega in his report, “The remarkable thing is that Scientology leader David Miscavige has gotten away with banishing his wife, who once helped to run Scientology with him, to a small compound in the mountains above Los Angeles.”
“We reported in 2013 that Shelly does have some limited communication with the outside world, and was asked by a family member how she might be able to leave the base. ‘There’s only one way,’ she responded, and Mike Rinder told us he interpreted that to mean that only another family funeral would allow Shelly to go outside the confines of the compound.”
Others have interpreted that as the only way she could escape would be through her own death.
Mr Ortega was the journalist who exposed the mystery behind the death of Shelly’s mother, Flo Barnett, who died in 1985.
Four years after Shelly married David Miscavige, Mrs Barnett was found dead in her home with four bullets to her body, including three shots to her head and one to her chest.
Her death was ruled a suicide.
Leah Remini has credited the disappearance of Shelly has the catalyst to her leaving the church.
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