Mary Lee South hasn’t been seen in public since April

Sep 1, 2015 10:09 GMT  ·  By
Tom Cruise and his mother Mary Lee South, who reportedly went missing in April this year
   Tom Cruise and his mother Mary Lee South, who reportedly went missing in April this year

Tom Cruise’s life outside of the little he’s willing to share in interviews has always been fascinating to the media and the fans at home, but interest in it has considerably picked up in recent years, particularly after HBO aired the documentary “Scientology and the Prison of Belief.”

This year alone, we’ve had countless reports about Tom and Scientology, ranging from his supposed plans to leave the Church to how he was forced to stop seeing his daughter with Katie Holmes, Suri, because of it.

A new report is now tying the so-called disappearance of his mother to his involvement with Scientology.

Cruise’s mom has gone missing, apparently

Mary Lee South, 78, lived with her superstar son Tom Cruise, in his Beverly Hills mansion, until November last year. After that, public records obtained by Radar Online reveal she was moved to Belmont Village, an assisted living home that also happens to be in close vicinity to a Scientology church.

She hasn’t been seen since April this year, on Easter, the report continues.

“South’s apartment in Belmont Village remains empty, and some fear she has died,” Radar says. “But as of yet, no death certificate has been filed in California or in her previous home state of Florida.”

The story is sourced to The National Enquirer (so there’s that), which links South’s “disappearance” to the fact that Tom is Scientology’s number 1 celebrity right now and to reports of earlier this year, saying that he was thinking of defecting so he could spend more time with his daughter.

When Katie Holmes divorced Tom and took Suri with her to New York, she and the child were probably declared Suppressive Persons instantly. It is a common practice within Scientology to ban active members any kind of contact with SPs, even when they are closely related, like Tom and Suri.

The implication of the report on South is that Scientology is keeping her at one of their secret centers / labor camps, blackmailing Cruise into not leaving the Church.

Cruise and Scientology

There was never anything concrete to back up the story that Cruise was considering leaving Scientology, even if leader David Miscavige had personally banned him from speaking or meeting with his daughter.

At this point, it is widely believed that there is absolutely nothing that could get Tom to leave the Church, just like fellow actor John Travolta will never even consider it either. As revealed in the aforementioned documentary, Scientologists undergo “auditing” sessions in order to be able to move up the ladder, but these sessions are recorded without their knowledge.

Since they’re asked to reveal the most intimate details of their life during these sessions, the material can be used later either to blackmail them into a course of action they might not want to take or to get more money from them.

Tom has been with the Church since he was a young man, and he and Miscavige are particularly close. That means Scientology had many, many years to gather stuff to use against him.

Speaking of Miscavige, the latest report on Cruise’s mother carries some weight because Miscavige’s wife, Shelly, is also believed to be missing. She hasn’t been seen by anyone since 2007, when she admittedly decided she was done with that life and wanted out of the cult.