Leah Remini Portrait - P 2013
Courtesy of APAThe investigation into Shelly (Michelle) Miscavige‘s whereabouts has been closed hours after news broke that former Scientologist Leah Remini had filed a missing persons report on her behalf.
As The Hollywood Reporter previously reported, Remini had taken action after becoming concerned about the well-being of Shelly Miscavige, wife of controversial Scientology leader David Miscavige.
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The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed Friday that the case had been closed and the missing persons report was “ruled as unfounded.” The church issued a statement to THR on Friday, calling Remini’s action an act of “ill-advised, ludicrous self-promotion.”
Read the entire statement here.
According to writer Tony Ortega‘s website, The Underground Bunker, which focuses on the inner workings of the secretive organization, Shelly Miscavige has not been sighted publicly in six years.
According to Ortega, Shelly Miscavige allegedly was transferred from Scientology’s headquarters near Hemet, Calif., to a secret compound near Lake Arrowhead in late 2005 or early 2006. The compound, known as the Church of Spiritual Technology, reportedly houses about a dozen Scientologists who are said to be completely cut off from the outside world. Miscavige and his attorneys have not confirmed publicly Shelly’s whereabouts. According to Ortega’s report, Remini questions whether Shelly has freedom of movement or is being “punished for her own shortcomings.”
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Scientology officials strenuously have denied that Shelly Miscavige is missing, and in 2012, Shelly Miscavige’s attorneys told Us Weekly that “any reports that she is missing are false. … Mrs. Miscavige has been working nonstop in the Church, as she always has.”
News of Remini’s departure from Scientology broke July 8, with many reports stating that the 43-year-old had come to question the treatment of church members and the leadership of Miscavige. Her break with the organization also involved the touchy issue of Shelly Miscavige’s whereabouts, a subject that has prompted occasionally fevered speculation among Scientology watchers.
According to Ortega’s original account, Remini’s disillusionment with Scientology began at the 2006 wedding of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes in Italy when she asked why Shelly Miscavige was not in attendance.
When Remini questioned why Shelly had not accompanied her husband to the nuptials (David Miscavige served as Cruise’s best man), then-church spokesman Tommy Davis, son of actress Anne Archer, reportedly told Remini, “You don’t f—ing rank to ask about Shelly.”
Remini later was behind an internal report sent to senior Scientology officials concerning the events at the wedding, alleging questionable behavior between Miscavige and his female assistant, Laurisse “Lou” Stuckenbrock, according to two sources who spoke to THR and asked not to be identified because they fear retaliation from Scientology. Remini’s sister, Nicole Remini-Wiskow, told Ortega that her sister phoned a longtime friend in Scientology from Italy, and the friend wrote the report about Miscavige based on what Leah told her she witnessed at the wedding. While members reporting on one another is frequent and encouraged in the church, ex-members say it is highly unusual to criticize Miscavige.
Earlier this month, reports surfaced that Remini was planning a tell-all memoir that would include “my experiences, everything that’s taboo to talk about.”
