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A fresh hunt for a leader is underway – after he went missing while lawyers attempt to serve him a child trafficking lawsuit brought by three former Sea Org members. 

David Miscavige, 62, has allegedly been avoiding the lawsuit brought forth by Valeska Paris, Gawain Baxter, and Laura Baxter and hasn’t been seen in the last five months. 

The trio allege they were forced into labor on Scientology boats as children after signing a one billion-year contract in exchange for little or no money, the lawsuit said. 

Paris left the church in 2009 and Gawain and Laura Baxter left in 2012. 

 across various Scientology headquarters – to no avail. US Magistrate Judge Julie Sneed served a summons to Miscavige on behalf of the plaintiffs. 

Ten copies of the summons were sent to various Scientology properties in Florida and California, all were sent back as undelivered as nobody would sign for them.

The reclusive Scientology chief’s last known address was at the controversial church’s International building in Los Angeles. Similar to other members of Scientology’s extremist wing, the Sea Org, Miscavige does not have a recorded address.

However, he is believed to living in gated community, Hacienda Garden, in Clearwater, which is owned by Scientology. 

In addition, his wife, Shelly, has been missing since 2007 and is believed to be living at Scientology’s Church of the Spiritual Technology (CST) in Twin Peaks, California. 

DailyMail.com has reached out to the Church of Scientology for comment.  

Various Scientology experts are now comparing David’s disappearance to that of founder L. Ron Hubbard, who died in 1986 after spending years dealing with lawsuits and legal battles until he became recluse in Northern California. 

‘He is so paranoid,’ Karen de la Carriere, a former high-ranking member, who was trained by Hubbard, told the about David. 

‘He sees the FBI in his soup. He expects a bullet in his chest by someone somewhere so he has an entourage like a third world dictator. He doesn’t make a move without his security entourage. He has a very grandiose image of himself.

‘Miscavige is completely echoing Hubbard.’ 

Some members of the church – which have included many high-profiled names like Tom Cruise and Leah Remini over the years – have said the organization is not equipped for something to happened to David. 

‘Unlike Hubbard, there is no successor lined up. Miscavige, in his lust for power, smashed to a pulp any possible rivals. So there is no one to lead if anything happens to him,’ de la Carriere told the Post. 

Lawyers have appeared at Scientology properties and asked security guards about Miscavige’s whereabouts, the guards have said that they were clueless. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit have even hired a private investigator in an attempt to track him down, it was reported in December. 

While in a motion that month, one of the plaintiff’s attorneys, Neil Glazer, said: ‘Miscavige cannot be permitted to continue his gamesmanship.’ 

Glazer also said Miscavige is taking part in an ‘intentional concealment of his location and evasion of service.’

In addition to the trafficking allegations, Paris alleged that she was the victim of repeated sexual assaults in her youth while working on the ship and that when her mother left Scientology, Paris, then 17, was locked in an engine room for 48 hours as punishment. She did not accuse the leader of assaulting her. 

According to the report, lawyers tried to track Miscavige through two traffic tickets he received in the 1990s. Both of those list his Scientology’s Los Angeles center as his home.

For their part, Miscavige’s lawyers said that he’s merely the target of a legal strategy due to his status within Scientology. They said that he does not live in Florida, hence why lawyers can’t serve him.

Outspoken anti-Scientology member Mike Rinder, who once reported directly to Miscavige, has said that the church’s leader is shielded in numerous ways by Scientology against summonses and subpoenas.

In the lawsuit, Gawain Baxter said his parents put him in a Sea Org nursery when he was two months old.

At the age of six, he was forced to sign the one billion year contract, and went to live in a Cadet Org dormitory with around 100 other children.

‘Children over six years old are considered to be and are frequently told that they are adults and that they should act and expect to be treated as adults.

‘They are now even called children; rather they must be referred to as “Cadets”‘ the lawsuit said. 

They claimed that the church organizers and Sea Org supervisors only allowed them to see their parents once a week, but that visits could be canceled at a moment’s notice if they deemed the child to be in trouble.

‘From the ages of six to fourteen, Gawain was not permitted to attend any accredited public or private school. Instead, schoolwork consisted of two to three hours per day of basic reading, writing, and math in a classroom of thirty other children, under the supervision of Linda Hilton, Cadet Coordinator’s spouse.

‘Beginning when Gawain was ten years old, he was required to spend one to two hours daily in Scientology indoctrination courses as well.

‘The cost of each course was recorded as a debt that Gawain was told he would owe if he ever left Cadet Org or Sea Org,’ the lawsuit alleged.

On top of his ‘schooling,’ he says he was required to perform ‘five to ten hours a day’ of unpaid labor.

When he was 14, he says he was moved into a different phase of the program where he was forced to perform up to 12 hours a day of unpaid labor, renovating properties and cleaning them.

‘Gawain was sleep-deprived, given inadequate time to eat, and verbally abused by his adult supervisors,’ the trio’s attorney said.

A spokesman for the church previously denied the allegations, saying: ‘The allegations are both scurrilous and ridiculous and the lawsuit is both a sham and a scam. Valeska Paris already wasted the time of law enforcement when she made these fraudulent claims years ago.

‘It is public record they closed her file stating “There are no corroborating witnesses or evidence provided to support the allegations.”‘

As for Shelly, who met her husband on Hubbard’s Apollo ship at 11 or 12, many former and current members are still hoping to find her, including Remini. 

The actress tweeted on January 18: ‘The last time Shelly was seen in public, she was 43. I hope I can wish Shelly a happy birthday in person one day. Until then, I will keep fighting for my friend’s freedom no matter what Scientology tries to do to me.’ 

Remini left the church in 2013 after she filed a missing persons report for Shelly. One of the reasons she left was because she was told by a church spokesperson that she didn’t have ‘the f**king rank to ask about Shelly,’ according to Scientology watchdog  reported in 2013. 

A former church member and music composer, Geoffrey Levin, 77, who left in 2018,  said he heard Shelly had been undergoing depression at the time of her disappearance and that she was often ‘in the background’ at events. 

‘Miscavige was so dominant. At the same time he could be very charming. He was a classic narcissist. His personality could just flip,’ he said of David’s ability to outshine his wife. 

She also reportedly loved dogs and had up to five beagles, which were left behind after she vanished.  

Another former Scientologist John Brousseau told Remini on her show Aftermath that he would see Shelly ‘disappear during portions of the day.’  

‘I sort of surmised that she was being security checked. I could see the terror in her eyes. I think she said something and Miscavige found out … and that was it. The axe fell. And then she just sort of disappeared very shortly thereafter. He’ll do everything he can to keep her wherever she is until she dies,’ he said. 

There is no evidence that David was involved in his wife’s disappearance.  

The LAPD did look into Remini’s missing person report, but ruled it ‘unfounded.’