Top Aussie Scientologist is found dead after devoting her life to the mysterious religion - as details of her incredible link to its leader and her tragic cause of death are revealed

Daily Mail​

4 days ago

An Australian woman who was run out of Melbourne as a child due to her family's Scientology beliefs has died in Florida.
Marion Pouw, 72, died near the Scientology city of Clearwater where she spent much of her life dedicated to the controversial religion and its leader, David Miscavige.
Former friends - who say they were cut off from her after they left the church - revealed she had died from pancreatic cancer.
Pouw was said to be Miscavige's right-hand woman, with some former Scientologists branding her his 'henchman', while another said she was one of his 'closest lieutenants'.
A never-before-seen picture exclusively given to Daily Mail Australia reveals Pouw at her first wedding, with Miscavige's wife, Shelly, one of her bridesmaids.
Ms Miscavige inexplicably vanished 18 years ago and has never been found.
A death notice listed by Tampa funeral home Brewer & Sons shared that Ms Pouw was born on February 7, 1953, and died on June 20, 2025.
The listing has since been mysteriously deleted, but still appears online in a Google search.
An obituary on US website Echovita revealed that Ms Pouw died in Clermont, Florida, just a stone's throw from Scientology's Clearwater headquarters.
The obituary farewelled her 'Earthly form'.
Scientology's core belief is that humans are immortal spiritual beings, called thetans, who are in a continual cycle of reincarnation on Earth and other planets.
Ms Pouw's work for the church flew mostly under the radar, but she appeared in a Scientology video slamming David's father, the late Ron Miscavige, for leaving the church and writing a memoir about it.
Ms Pouw said she had helped Ron at his lowest point when his brother Red died, and that they were close family friends for more than 40 years.
In his book Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige, and Me, Ron described Pouw as his son's henchman, which infuriated her.
'I find the fact that he references me as a 'top henchman' both offensive and insulting,' she said in the video which was posted online and revealed a lingering trace of her Australian accent.
'I mean we're talking a 40 year relationship… a close family friend that's gone out of her way for… and cared for him.
'And to now depict that relationship in that manner - a friend doesn't say that about a friend, ever. No matter the circumstances, you just don't say that.
'And I find it very insulting and such a gross misrepresentation of the relationship that… that I had with him.
'He was a friend - he's not a friend now - but he was a very close friend. I was family. And frankly, I was stunned.'
Ron Miscavige died in 2021, aged 85.
Pouw and her siblings were raised by Dutch parents in Melbourne, but the family fled to the church's UK HQ in Saint Hill after a 1965 government investigation into the religion, which stifled its activities in Victoria at the time.
She was raised alongside fellow Australian Scientology children, Terri, Janis and Peter Gillham.
According to Janis and fellow former Scientologist Mike Fisher, who co-host Scientology - Peeling The Onion, a YouTube series on life outside of the church, Marion spent her 'entire life' in the organisation's shadowy pseudo-navy, Sea Org.
Janis said Pouw's family left Scientology when she was a teenager, but as soon as she turned 17, she returned and signed up for Sea Org, an 'elite' subsection of the religion that spent much of its time at sea.
Pouw rapidly ascended the ranks, and became an assistant for Mary Sue Hubbard - the wife of Scientology founder, L Ron Hubbard.
It's understood she was incredibly close to the Scientology boss, especially in his latter years before his death in 1986.
Her unwavering loyalty then switched to his successor, Miscavige.
They were so close that Miscavige's wife Shelly was a bridesmaid in Pouw's wedding to fellow Scientologist, Bill Meisner.
Shelly has been a subject of global fascination since vanishing in 2007.
Actress and former Scientologist Leah Remini has been tireless in her quest to find Shelly, but Pouw never publicly commented on her friend's disappearance.
Janis, who left the church in 1990, was devastated that her friend and Aussie compatriot had died without ever getting to reconnect with her.
She exclusively shared pictures of Marion with Daily Mail Australia.
'She had a dedication and drive to Scientology...but had a goodness about her that got buried,' Janis said.
Her YouTube co-host Mike Fisher countered Janis' kind words by saying, 'But she chose that [the church] over her family and her friends that she'd known for years'.
Janis added: 'The sad part is she didn't go back to Holland to see her mum and dad.
'When her father passed away, he didn't tell Marion [that he was dying]. His thoughts were that, 'She didn't care enough about me when I was alive, why would she care that I'm dead?'
'They missed so many years with her, so there is that big hole.'
Janis, who now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, recalled Pouw lecturing her father Peter Gillham Sr that he needed to 'Handle Janis and Peter Jr' after they left because they'd been 'speaking out against the church'.
Marion, third from left, is seen with Janis and her sister Terri, and another woman
Janis revealed her regret that Pouw did not come to see her, even if it was to apparently silence them.
'If Marion had come to see us, we would have turned her,' she said.
She alleged Pouw had formed a crucial part of Scientology's defence of mass protests in the mid-2000s, which were sparked by an exposé from internet activists Anonymous.
'She would go around and rope people back in [to the church] for Miscavige,' she said.
It is believed Pouw's mother Wilma is still alive, in her 90s, and living in the Netherlands.
Janis' late mother Yvonne was the brains behind Scientology's world-famous Celebrity Center in Los Angeles.
The church responded angrily to speculation about Ms Pouw's life and death when approached by Daily Mail Australia.
'How dare you use someone's death—someone who cannot respond—to spread lies,' said public affairs spokesman Karin Pouw, believed to be Marion's sister-in-law.
'Marion would be outraged to know her honorable name is being used to promote a bigoted agenda against the Church she served and the people she so deeply cared for.
'Marion stood for truth, compassion, and justice. That her name would be used to spread lies would violate everything she lived for and hurt those she truly loved.
'Marion is deeply missed and will long be remembered by her true friends who worked side by side with her day in and day out for five decades.
'We urge you to reconsider what you are doing. If you proceed, you will not only be spreading falsehoods—you will be participating in the willful defamation of someone who can no longer defend herself, but who is not without people willing to do so.