One year ago we decided that on Christmas Day it would be a good time to review what we knew about the disappearance of Shelly Miscavige, wife to Scientology’s leader David Miscavige, who vanished from Scientology’s Gold Base in summer 2005. We wondered if Shelly, kept hidden in a remote mountain compound, even knew it was Christmas. A year later, we think it’s a good time to post that story again, since it still represents what we know about Shelly’s whereabouts.
We understand that Shelly Miscavige may be resigned to her fate.
But there’s a reason that “Where’s Shelly” is the number one question we get from the public — and it’s the same for Leah Remini. (We checked.)
For non-Scientologists, it’s simply incredible to think that David Miscavige, the leader of a worldwide “religious” organization, could get away with banishing his wife to a small mountain compound, never to be heard from again. On a day like today we can only wonder, does Shelly Miscavige really feel no desire to be with her family, or even just to see a few faces besides the dozen other people she has seen day in and day out for 14 years?
The question “Where’s Shelly” reached a whole new audience in December 2018 thanks to Leah’s television show, which provided a lot of background for viewers about Shelly’s upbringing. But the episode was light on details about Shelly’s current whereabouts and what we’ve learned about it in recent years. It was obvious from the huge number of questions we got on social media that week that viewers were left with a lot of questions. So on this meaningful day, let’s revisit some facts.
It was late August or early September in 2005 when Shelly vanished. We know that you heard Valerie Haney, in her Aftermath episode, say it was 2006, and a lot of media tends to say that. But when we talked with Valerie directly for our follow-up interview and compared notes with her, she agreed with our other eyewitnesses that it was late summer 2005 when Shelly disappeared, not 2006.
As we pointed out in a video we put out recently, the last public footage we have of Shelly was from September 2004, when Shelly was with Dave and with Tom Cruise at the Ideal Org opening in Madrid. It was at that event when Tom admitted to Dave that after breaking up with Penelope Cruz he was looking for a new girlfriend. Shelly was then put in charge of the effort to audition actresses to find a new mate for Tom, resulting that November in recruiting Nazanin Boniadi for the role. After that relationship broke up in January 2005, Tom found Katie Holmes on his own and their relationship became public in April.
As 2005 progressed, Valerie Haney and Mike Rinder and others have told us, the relationship between Dave and Shelly became more and more strained as they lived at Int Base (also known as “Gold Base”), Scientology’s secretive 500-acre international management compound near Hemet, California, where, the year before, an increasingly unhinged Miscavige had created “The Hole,” a literal prison for some of his closest lieutenants. Concerned with how Dave’s erratic behavior and epic tantrums were affecting other people, Shelly took it upon herself to make a few changes when Dave spent some time in Los Angeles without her that summer. First, she rearranged some job positions (filled in an “org board”). It was Valerie who explained to us that Shelly did so in part to assign some people to positions where they would be less likely to be in contact with her husband. Shelly was trying to lessen their exposure to his volcanic temper, in other words. And she also had Dave’s belongings crated up so that a long-planned renovation to their quarters could finally get going.
When Dave returned and saw that she had taken the initiative, he blew his stack and returned to Los Angeles. A week later, Shelly vanished. A new detail that was finally confirmed for us by Valerie was that during that week between Dave’s freakout and Shelly’s disappearance, she grabbed a car at the base and drove to Los Angeles in a last-ditch effort to save her marriage. But she soon returned after that mission failed. She was then taken away. This is an important detail, we believe, because it counters the suggestion that Shelly, by taking the initiative while Dave was gone, purposely sabotaged herself so she could be sent away. Would Shelly have made the dramatic gesture of driving to LA to appeal to her husband if that was the case?
So, fourteen years ago at the age of 44, Shelly was escorted from Int Base (where “The Hole” was) about 60 miles to the much smaller compound in the mountains near Lake Arrowhead, the headquarters of the Church of Spiritual Technology, where super-secret CST operates its project to archive the words of L. Ron Hubbard to store in vaults for thousands of years. (We are constantly asked, could Shelly be in “the Hole”? No, the Hole is located at the base where Shelly was taken away from. And we have eyewitnesses to the poor wretches held in the Hole continuously from 2005 to 2016, and Shelly is not among them.)
[In this map, you can see the location of Scientology’s Los Angeles headquarters, “Big Blue,” and about 90 miles east the location of its international management base, Int Base, near Hemet. “The Hole” is located at Int Base, the place where Shelly was living until 2005 when she vanished. Shelly was then moved to the CST headquarters near Lake Arrowhead, a tiny compound about 60 miles northwest of Int Base and marked on the map. That’s where Shelly has been for the last 14 years.]
Almost two years after Shelly was sent away, on June 25, 2007, her father, Maurice Elliott “Barney” Barnett, died at the age of 77. When his funeral was held that summer, Shelly was allowed to attend, but in the presence of a Scientology handler, Anne Joasem, the ex-wife of the defector Marty Rathbun. According to Marc Headley, when someone who knew Shelly approached her with a request, she told them, “Listen to me. I fucked up, and I’m not going to be able to help you.”
(Another indication that Shelly is aware of her fate and its punitive nature: In 2013, just before Leah filed her missing-person report, we revealed that Shelly had told a family member “there’s only one way” she would ever again leave the CST base, referring to the prospect of a family funeral.)
In the twelve years since that sighting — fourteen total since she first was escorted from Int Base — various lines of evidence tell us Shelly has been confined to the CST headquarters compound in the San Bernardino Mountains. The place goes by several names, depending on who you’re talking to: Twin Peaks, Rim of the World, Rimforest, or also Crestline, for the nearest hamlet.
In July 2013 news of Leah Remini’s defection broke. On Monday August 5 she filed a missing-person report with the Los Angeles Police Department. Why the LAPD? For years Leah exchanged cards and gifts with Shelly, whose official address was 6331 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, and which is to this day David Miscavige’s official address. That location is the Hollywood Guaranty Building, an office structure that on its ground floor contains the “L. Ron Hubbard Life Exhibition.” The eleventh floor is where Miscavige and his most trusted aides run Scientology when he’s in L.A. We’re told that there’s a place there where he can crash for the night, but it’s not the location of his apartment, which was actually a few blocks away.
Anyway, 6331 Hollywood Blvd in Los Angeles was the address Leah had from the years she was corresponding with Shelly, and that’s why she submitted her report to the LAPD on Monday August 5, 2013.
Two nights later, on Wednesday, we got word that the report had been filed. The next morning, Thursday August 8, we broke the news that Leah had filed the report. Later that day, reporters who were calling the LAPD for comment were told that Shelly had been contacted and that the idea she was missing was “unfounded.”
Leah was hammered by the press, which for some reason thought her report had been dealt with in less than a day, because our story had come out that morning and by the afternoon the LAPD was saying there was nothing to it. But that’s not what happened.
After Leah filed her report on Monday August 5, and before the LAPD said it was unfounded on the afternoon of Thursday August 8, the LAPD claims that it visited Shelly and talked with her.
When we called to ask about it, we were forwarded to Lt. Andre Dawson, who told us two of his detectives had met with Shelly. He wouldn’t tell us where that meeting had occurred, and when we asked him if the conversation had happened in the presence of other church officials, he quickly said “That’s classified.”
Meanwhile, Leah herself never got any response at all from the LAPD, even though she had filed the missing-person report to begin with.
Did Lt. Dawson’s detectives go up to the CST headquarters, which is in another jurisdiction, San Bernardino County, to check on Shelly? Was Shelly instead brought down to Los Angeles to meet the detectives? Or was the LAPD merely lying to us?
In 2016, Leah still wanted answers about that. Through an attorney, she filed an official records request with the LAPD for documentation on what they had actually done when she filed her missing-person request. But the LAPD told her it was going to give her no documentation at all.
Around that same time, in 2016, we heard from a branch of Shelly’s family that is not involved in Scientology. They asked us for some advice about what to do, saying that they at least wanted to make sure that Shelly was all right. We pointed out to them that the CST compound is in San Bernardino County. So they approached the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, asking that a welfare check be done on her.
They were told that the Sheriff’s Department would require evidence that Shelly was at that location, and the department did nothing.
Surprised by that response, we sent our own letter to the Sheriff’s Department, explaining the evidence that Shelly was located at the compound, as well as a recent possible sighting of her in the town of Crestline itself. We received this response…
Hello Tony,
Concerning the welfare of someone within the jurisdiction of the Sheriff’s department, any call for service we receive will be appropriately addressed and handled accordingly.
AdvertisementWe encourage anyone with information regarding a crime, or potential crime, to contact Sheriff’s Dispatch or their local Sheriffs station to report it so the matter can be investigated and resolved.
Thank you,
Adam Cervantes, Deputy Sheriff
San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Dept.
Public Affairs Division
So, the LAPD claims it checked on Shelly in 2013 but won’t provide any details about it, and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department says it doesn’t have enough evidence that she’s at the CST compound to go check on her.
Is Shelly even alive? We see this suggestion a lot on social media, that Shelly is already dead or has been killed, and there’s a good reason why we tell people it’s probably not true.
Scientology may be very effective at keeping Shelly out of sight, but covering up a death is another matter entirely. Consider the case of Anne Tidman, for example. Also known as Annie Broeker, Tidman was one of the last people to see L. Ron Hubbard alive, and she was also kept out of sight at a Scientology compound for years. When she developed cancer and then became very ill, she was moved to an apartment in Hollywood, where she died in 2011. Scientology was able to keep news of her death quiet for several months, but eventually her family was told about it, and that’s how we became aware of it. If Shelly died, we think the news would get out even more quickly.
Also, Scientology’s attorneys, in reaction to Leah Remini’s episode, made claims to the media that they had either personally seen Shelly or communicated with her. Scientology attorneys may be unpleasant human beings, but they aren’t going to risk their law licenses and claim that a dead woman is alive and well.
Shelly is alive.
She is at the CST compound near Crestline, California, the same place she’s been for 14 years. (We have amazing drone footage of the place, and a former employee there even pinpointed where he thinks Shelly is living and working there.)
She is now 58 years old, and if claims of a recent sighting in the town of Crestline is correct, she may be in ill health.
And yes, we will say again, she may be resigned to her fate.
But on this day, of all days, why can’t her family spend time with Shelly Miscavige? Why can’t she speak for herself? Why can’t we ask her to explain, in her own words, why she is shut up in a tiny mountain compound and can never leave?
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Continuing our year in review: The stories of May 2019
May kicked off with one of the biggest news stories of the year when confirmation arrived that it was indeed Scientology’s cruise ship the Freewinds that was quarantined in St. Lucia with a measles case. Scientology’s floating cathedral with measles seemed like just too perfect an illustration of our dumb anti-vaccination era.
Former Freewinds crew told us what it was probably like on board as the ship tried to contain the measles outbreak and the debacle as the world’s press was laughing.
With its sick crew member, the Freewinds sailed back to its home port in Curaçao, and we put together a full timeline of the Freewinds under Scientology.
Former crew member Valeska Paris, meanwhile, had a message for media and authorities, that it should focus on the real horrors that had taken place on the cruise ship.
And yet, while Scientology was being roasted by the world’s press for the measles problem, Scientologist clown Rizza Islam picked that week to go on a national radio program railing against vaccines.
Another person who shared with us their Freewinds experience was Joey Chait, about how he was sexually abused on the ship as a 12-year-old.
On May 7, we were stunned to learn that a California family had sued a Scientology rehab over a wrongful death, and after a trial had been awarded $11 million.
The next day, we learned that one of the New York Scientologist chiropractors indicted in an $80 million Medicare scam had decided to plead guilty.
On Dianetics Day, May 9, historian Chris Owen revealed L. Ron Hubbard’s greatest World War II blunder, a previously unknown snafu in Australia that resulted in multiple deaths which Hubbard was at least partially responsible for.
In May, Scientology unveiled its new strategy for recruitment: The QR code!
It was also the Scientology publicity debut for Ella Bleu, John Travolta’s daughter, who made a conspicuous visit to an awards ceremony at the Fort Harrison Hotel while wearing a Dianetics pin.
After the Freewinds measles case, we started finding more evidence that Scientology is getting involved in anti-vaxx activity.
Graham Berry had yet another legal demand letter to share with us, this time detailing the hell Scientology had put a man named Louis Stephen through. Here again is evidence of financial criminal behavior going on right now in the Church of Scientology (just in case law enforcement felt like paying attention).
May is also when we had a bizarre story out of Peoria, Illinois, where a longtime Scientologist was brutally murdered by his own son. The son was later convicted of the crime, but there’s been no word at all from Scientology about the sad fate of its former member.
Scientology tried to quietly open a drug rehab near Toronto, but the locals got it shut down with some quick work complaining to area officials.
And Scientology’s Freewinds magazine put out a new issue, but you might be shocked to learn that it made no mention of measles.
A LOOK BACK AT MAY 2018: Geoff Levin came forward to tell his story about finally reuniting with his brother Robbie and getting their band People! back together. Joy Villa took down her ‘testing the waters’ for Congress page. Some new L. Ron Hubbard letters up for auction included him talking about how Dianetics helped him “unfrigidize” women. Erika Christensen got a new trophy. And Luke Ayers gave us some Aussie-flavored Scientology hip-hop.
A LOOK BACK AT MAY 2017: We talked to the families involved in the Tennessee house of horrors operated by Scientologists and shut down by local authorities. We got our first drone footage of the compound where Shelly Miscavige is being held. A random photo revealed the location of a Scientology dad, disconnected for seven years. Leah Remini tided us over between seasons with a 2-hour special.
A LOOK BACK AT MAY 2016: One of Ron Miscavige’s fellow musicians sticks up for him. L. Ron Hubbard admitted he was mostly kidding. Kate Bornstein and Caitlyn Jenner raided the Los Angeles org. And Tommy Davis got a new job working for James Packer.
A LOOK BACK AT MAY 2015: Our book about Paulette Cooper, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely goes on sale and it’s featured on the front page of the Daily Beast. Paulette joins us for a talk on our book just two blocks from Scientology’s Los Angeles headquarters. At Spanky Taylor’s house we witnessed the meeting of Paulette and Leah Remini. Jamie DeWolf threw a twisted party for Paulette and your proprietor in San Francisco. And for once, Greta Van Susteren gets called out for her Scientology affiliation.
A LOOK BACK AT MAY 2014: Florida horse doctor Lee Shewmaker told us about what drove him away from Scientology. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden asked the IRS to review its policies on Scientology. We obtained the Clearwater Police report on the strange death of Russian Scientologist Evgeny Zharkin. And the National Association of Forensic Counselors files a massive lawsuit.
A LOOK BACK AT MAY 2013: Lori Hodgson makes a surprise visit to see her son in Austin, Ron Miscavige Sr. resurfaces by selling gym equipment, Wise Beard Man reports from Portland, and we review Marty Rathbun’s book Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior.
Five of our favorites from the most-upvoted comments of May 2019
May 1: Derek
May 4: Observer
I will never get tired of the Plague Ship saga. My hope is that this will wake some people up.
May 7: Hamtaro
You follow Scientology for long enough and you come to expect to see shocking headlines. Abhorrent even. But “raped on the Freewinds at 12” is something much worse. Something truly evil. Let the perpetrator and all those that enabled him reside in Dante’s center of hell forever. All love to Joey. Never blame yourself for other people’s totally fucked up behavior.
May 8: Andrew Robertson
Please keep Captain Miscavige in your thoughts and prayers at this difficult time. His international business empire is under assault from both the sinister forces of law enforcement agencies and the unwelcome attention of the popular press. Without his wife and helpmate by his side to comfort and aid him, his only solace is to turn to the religious writings of the late Dr Hubbard and ask that eternal philosophical question “What would Ron do?”
May 9: Hana Eltringham Whitfield
Thank you for your great work, Chris. Your information [about Hubbard’s WWII debacle] verifies everything that I saw about Hubbard and experienced with him while I was in Scientology and the Sea Org. It is clear his whole life was a lie, from all the accolades he spun about himself to creating his auditing and training processes and programs with hypnotic techniques. If there is any more information to be found out about him, it will be much of the same.
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Leaked document of the day
From the FBI documents release comes this item.
Twelve days after the FBI’s big raid on Scientology on July 8, 1977, the agency gets nervous that Scientology has targeted the Los Angeles FBI office for electronic surveillance and orders that the phone lines be checked. After the raid, when the government can see in the documents it seized just what Scientology’s Guardian’s Office is capable of, they’re taking no chances.
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“1980 draws to a close and we enter 1981. I just wanted to say ‘hello.’ They say a man is known by the high quality of his friends. So I must be very well known. I think I am very fortunate to have such a friend as you. One owes a friend some accounting of himself. You may be wondering what I’ve been up to lately. Would you like to know? I am as well as can be expected for anyone several trillion years old. I’m not doing any motorcycling nor much driving. I miss the good old days of sailing around in the Apollo. Sitting on a mountain top looking at the distant sea is no substitute for being on it.” — L. Ron Hubbard, December 25, 1980
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“Dear Mr. President, We Free Scientologists would like to contribute to the task of making America great again. The American writer L. Ron Hubbard developed an advanced technology to free the human mind from past experiences (trauma) so that the people can think freely and manage their lives successfully….Since then Scientology has experienced a hidden influence by intelligence agents, which finally took over Scientology in the 1970’s and put it under the control of the Deep State….As the intelligence community wanted a monopoly on these capabilities, they…put Scientology onto ‘Nixon’s enemy list’ and used the FBI-COINTELPRO to get rid of Hubbard — an Interpol-warrant was issued and he was imprisoned on 4 December 1972 without a chance of legal recourse….The original Scientology — as developed by L. Ron Hubbard — contains the methods and techniques to free the human spirit and mind from past experiences and constraints…We need all the resources available in each person to survive the global crisis which is ahead of us. We need many more people as clear and powerful as you, Mr. President, obviously are. Please help to rehabilitate the true potential of Scientology by ordering these agencies to stop infiltrating and get them out of our church….Thank you for being there and taking the responsibility of the post of US President. I love you too.”
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“Christmas in the U.S was invented by Ulysses S. Grant, Macy’s, and Sears & Roebuck after the Civil War to help jump-start the economy and pay for the war. The Pilgrims banned Christmas. Christmas in Europe was a drunken eat-till-you-puke orgy.”
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Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!
We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.
Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!
Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!
Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society!
Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in our weekly series. How many have you read?
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THE WHOLE TRACK
[ONE year ago] Does Shelly Miscavige know it’s Christmas?
[TWO years ago] Thetans roasting on an open fire: It’s Christmas in the Bunker, and we’re full of cheer
[THREE years ago] From those who left, a special Christmas message for Scientology’s remaining members
[FOUR years ago] Merry Christmas 2015: Here’s your Scientology present under the tree
[FIVE years ago] Scientology’s 2014 in review: May your days be merry and bright!
[SIX years ago] Merry Christmas, and here’s your present! From the Underground Bunker, with feeling
[SEVEN years ago] Scientology’s 2012 in Review: Eight Days that Shook the World
[EIGHT years ago] Scientology Sunday Funnies: Merry Christmas 2011!
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Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 1,798 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,302 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 1,822 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 842 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 733 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,040 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 1,908 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 2,682 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,456 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 2,802 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,368 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,287 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,455 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,036 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,297 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,335 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,048 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 1,573 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,100 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 5,663 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 2,803 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,123 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 7,979 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,098 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,453 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 5,756 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 1,862 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,264 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,136 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 1,719 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,214 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,468 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 13,577 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on December 25, 2019 at 07:00
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Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2018 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2018), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)
Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 14 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…
Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.
Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele
