Miscavige is a member of the Sea Org, the organization responsible for the international management of the Church of Scientology and its affiliated entities. From the age of 12, she was a member of the Commodore's Messenger Organization, the internal Sea Org group responsible for personally servicing Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard aboard his flagship, MV Apollo, in the 1970s. She was described as "quiet, petite and younger than most of the other Messengers at the time ... and a bit overshadowed by the older girls." Jim Dincalci, one of her shipmates, says that she was "a sweet, innocent thing thrown into chaos." At the age of 21, in December 1982, she married a fellow CMO member, 22-year-old David Miscavige. She subsequently joined her husband's group as "COB Assistant", the official assistant to her husband, the Chairman of the Board of Scientology's Religious Technology Center. According to author Lawrence Wright, she was closely involved in the Church's liaison with its highest profile member, Tom Cruise. When Cruise began a three-year relationship with Penélope Cruz, Miscavige supervised Cruz's auditing and helped her through the Church's Purification Rundown program. After the end of the Cruise-Cruz relationship, Miscavige was reported to have led a Church program to find a new girlfriend for Tom Cruise. Around a hundred young Scientologist actresses were interviewed, though they were not told why. An actress named Nazanin Boniadi was introduced to Cruise and dated him for a few months before he broke off the relationship in January 2005. The search resumed, with more actresses invited to audition for what they thought was a role in a forthcoming film, and eventually concluded with Katie Holmes meeting and marrying Cruise. His attorney denies that any Scientology executive set him up with girlfriends. Miscavige subsequently oversaw a project to use Scientology members and contractors to renovate Cruise's nine-bedroom mansion in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.
In 2006, Miscavige's husband, church leader David Miscavige, left Scientology's international base. Upon her husband's return, Miscavige was said to have "visibly changed" her mood and to have "looked cowed." Mike Rinder, then the church's chief spokesman, says that she asked him if her husband was still wearing his wedding ring. Shortly afterwards, in June 2006, she no longer made any appearances in public. Miscavige has not appeared in public since August 2007. Missing person reports have been filed with the Los Angeles Police Department concerning Miscavige. At least two such reports have been filed; one is reported by Lawrence Wright, though he does not state who submitted it, while another was filed in August 2013 by actress Leah Remini. Detective Gus Villanueva, in response to the missing person report, said: "The LAPD has classified the report as unfounded, indicating that Shelly is not missing." In August 2013, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed they located and spoke with Miscavige following a missing-persons report filed by Remini. Remini, who used to be a member of the Church of Scientology, questioned her absence at the wedding of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. Remini further questioned Shelly Miscavige's whereabouts in her show produced for the A&E network, on December 2018, five years after detectives closed her missing persons case, saying that they had met with her in person. The Church of Scientology responded to the announcement of the episode in a letter: "Remini is a foaming anti-Scientologist. Mrs. Miscavige has personally and repeatedly told law enforcement that Remini’s acts are abusive. Remini is unhinged and Remini and her cohorts should be prosecuted for knowingly filing a false missing person’s report.” The Church of Scientology will not comment on Miscavige's location. In July 2012, responding to press accounts of speculation on Miscavige's whereabouts, two UK newspapers were informed by lawyers indicating they represented Miscavige "that she is not missing and devotes her time to the work of the Church of Scientology." In December 2018, a lawyer representing the Church of Scientology told The Daily Beast that Miscavige is a dedicated Sea Org member who "lives a private life" and that his partner, Rebecca Kaufman, had personally met with her. Former members of the Sea Org have said that they believe Miscavige is being held against her will at the compound of the Scientologist's Church of Spiritual Technology corporation near the mountain town of Running Springs in San Bernardino County, California.
Family and personal life
Miscavige's mother, Mary Florence "Flo" Fike Barnett, was a long-time Scientologist. On September 8, 1985, 52-year-old Flo Barnett was found dead from three "somewhat superficial" rifle shots to the chest and a fatal shot to the head. The autopsy also reported that there were slash marks on her wrists that may have been a few days old. The death was ruled a suicide. Miscavige's father, Maurice Elliott Barnett, died in 2007.
In popular culture
made reference to Miscavige's disappearance in their fifth season episode NutriBoom. The episode satirized Scientology as a multi-level marketing company that produces amino acids and amino acid reducers, allegedly to improve their clients' health. Brooklyn Nine-Nine's parody of Miscavige, Debbie Stovelman, is found to be alive and well, having faked her own disappearance to allow her to run Nutriboom and escape the consequences of illegal activities.
