EXCLUSIVE: The places Scientology is hiding dying elderly Sea Org workers
Nine years ago, we published one of our most troubling stories at the Underground Bunker, about how a woman fighting cancer in her late 60s was mistreated because she remained a Scientology “Sea Org” worker who had signed its infamous billion-year contract.
The story of Claire Reppen and how Scientology worked her to death was a window into how dangerous it can be for older Sea Org members as they age.
“Elderly Sea Org members are burdens. They get shunted off to facilities where nobody really takes care of them. They are derided for their inability to ‘contribute.'” Mike Rinder told us at the time. “It’s sick. And it is a reflection of Scientology ultimately eradicating compassion from its most dedicated believers.”
As a result of that story and other reporting, we’ve been well aware that Scientology subjects its elderly Sea Org workers to this kind of abuse, and, as Mike put it, shunts them off to facilities to die.
But where?
Now, we have remarkable new information thanks to the dedicated work of a researcher who goes by the handle Cannonball, and who has helped us out with numerous stories in the past.
Combing through public death records from the past five years, Cannonball found a pattern that shows where Scientology’s secretive Int Base has been sending its elderly workers to die.
Int Base, also known as Gold Base, is a secretive 500-acre compound in San Jacinto, California and near the larger town of Hemet, about 90 miles east of Los Angeles. At one time Int Base was of great importance in the Scientology movement, largely because it was where church leader David Miscavige lived, it was where much of the audio-visual work of Golden Era Productions was done, and because it housed up to about 800 Sea Org workers who were in the highest echelons of a very stratified world.
Today, Int Base has lost much of its importance. Years ago Miscavige abandoned Int and moved to Florida, the audio-visual work was moved to the Scientology Media Productions studios in Los Angeles, and we’re told the Sea Org population at the base has fallen to only 200 or 300.
But even as it’s a shell of the place it once was, there are aging Sea Org workers there who have dedicated decades to Scientology and may have known nothing else in their adult lives.
Cannonball found records showing that a cluster of former Int Base personnel spent their final days in two senior living facilities that were originally developed by the same Southern California real estate company.
Manzanita Village Senior Living Community in Moreno Valley and Renaissance Village Murrieta have been connected to multiple former Sea Org members prior to their deaths. Both properties were originally developed by Continental East Development Inc. (CED), a firm founded in 2009 and based in Mission Viejo, CA. The company is led by Al Rattan, Lydia Persia Rattan, Trai Nguyen, Brennan Riddle, and Ashley Riddle.
Cannonball says it is unclear whether the firm or its leadership have any direct ties to Scientology. The two facilities are now operated under different ownership.
Manzanita Village Senior Living Community (Moreno Valley, California)
This facility, located at 27900 Brodiaea Ave, was sold in 2022 to a company based in Salem, Oregon. It was formerly known as Renaissance Village Rancho Belago, and has housed several former Int Base staff members:
Aaron Rathbun (b. 1956) had a residential history at the Moreno Valley facility and died on August 30, 2023, reportedly in La Jolla, CA.
Ralphine H. Chase (b. 1941) died in Moreno Valley on October 28, 2022.
Margaret E. Eastment (b. 1946) died there on March 20, 2020.
Penelope F. Mace (b. 1933) passed away on November 18, 2019.
Norman Starkey (b. 1943), a well-known Scientology executive, died on June 11, 2019, in Moreno Valley, though his last official mailing address was listed in Hollywood.
Renaissance Village Murrieta (Murrieta, California)
The second facility, located at 24271 Jackson Ave, also became home to several Sea Org members in their final days. Again, all three had prior assignments at Int Base.
Marina Pezzotti (b. 1962) had a documented transition from the Moreno Valley facility to Murrieta and died on July 24, 2024.
Marie-Noelle Olsen (b. 1960) died on December 23, 2023.
Shawn W. Morrison (b. 1953) died on November 11, 2021.
Outside of these two senior facilities, additional Int Base personnel died elsewhere in recent years:
Zona K. Seybold (b. 1956) died in Orange, CA, on November 5, 2019.
Yolanda G. Baeza de Avila (b. 1946) died on July 29, 2024, in San Jacinto, CA — indicating she may have remained at Int Base until her death.
“The consistent connection between these former staff members and specific senior care facilities, particularly ones with a shared developer, raise questions whether these patterns reflect a coordinated practice by the Church of Scientology or informal networks within the Sea Org itself,” Cannonball tells us.
He also shared the information with the Aftermath Foundation, and so we reached out to Claire Headley for her thoughts about the information that Cannonball found, and in particular about the Sea Org workers he had identified.
Here’s what she sent us.
This report Cannonball shared is devastating.
No one should be forced to live out their final days alone, yet that is the practice Scientology enforces on elderly Sea Organization members. The Michael J. Rinder Aftermath Foundation has assisted many elder Sea Org members and Scientologists and through this work we are more than familiar with the many devastating examples of elder abuse: Neglect, credit card fraud, lack of proper medical care, isolating seniors from their families, you name it.
We are actively working with a number of law enforcement agencies in relation to some ongoing elder abuse cases, and we have shared this information with them as well.
That said, my personal comments on these reported deaths: Many of these people Marc and I worked with for many years while in the Sea Organization, working at their headquarters in Gilman Hot Springs California.
While the mayor of Hemet was gallivanting around at the Golden Era golf course this past weekend, elderly staff are being shuttled away to nearby facilities to die completely alone.
While some of these staff were in their 70s, some were in their early 60s. No doubt proper medical attention could have prevented some of these deaths. This is another important reminder of the abuse Scientology commits on their members, many of whom have served in the Sea Organization for many decades.
Marina Pezzotti worked in RTC from 1996 to approximately 2006. She joined Scientology as a young woman after her brother died from a drug overdose in Italy. She had a young son when she left Italy and came to the US to move up the ranks of Scientology’s Sea organization. I doubt she ever saw her son again.
Yolanda Avila died alone as well. Her son Jorge went to great lengths to attempt to reconnect with his mother before she passed. Scientology refused to allow that.
Zona Seybold was married to Kenny Seybold, and she worked extensively with Annie Broeker Logan Tidman. I’m sure Annie’s demise took a huge toll on Zona.
Aaron Rathbun, known as Ronnie, was married to Cynthia Rathbun, the “medical” officer at Golden Era Productions for many years. (No relation to Marty Rathbun.) Ronnie was a cook in the galley most of the years we were there.
Margaret Eastment, known as Peggy Eastment was married to John Eastment. They were both senior technical management staff for many years until they were both busted to lower positions after falling into disfavor with David Miscavige. Their daughter Liz Eastment Dowswell likely still works at the Int Base or SMP. I doubt Liz was able to spend final days with her mother.
Elderly staff are quite literally dumped at these facilities and left to die alone. No visitors at all, no friends, family members, loved ones, no contact with the outside world, they are left to live out their final days completely alone, as if they are “downstats,” Scientology’s term for persona non grata.
In this day and age, how does Scientology get away with isolating elderly and sick members who could use nothing more than the love and support of their families in their final days? It just goes to show the many practices they get away with and why we need to continue doing this important work to stop them from destroying people’s lives to the very end.
— Claire Headley
Anyone with additional information about the treatment of older Sea Org workers is encouraged to come forward, particularly if they have knowledge that could assist ongoing investigations into elder care or the treatment of former Scientology staff.
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Sad news. Claire and Marc may not have known Shawn Morrison well, but I did. We worked together on the Music Studio and lots of other projects in the 80s.
The first day I arrived at the Int Base in '83, the RPF was recovering from an all-nighter binge and about to head into another one. When I arrived in the Garage there was Shawn on the floor, trying to catch a few z's in the middle of the day. A very pretty woman brought him some coffee.
This was an insane scenario for the RPF. You could get sent to the RPF for being to friendly with a woman, but here IN THE RPF, was a budding relationship that would lead to marriage. That was his future wife. She later died of cancer in the 90s I believe.
What do I remember about the departed? He had a cassette of Steely Dan that I can still recite chapter and verse. Of course there is no music allowed in the RPF, but often we just called the boom box a "paint dryer" and played what we had. In this case it was one cassette that was played over and over.
The rules of the RPF are that you work hard but are allowed to rehabilitate yourself and another, your twin, at which point you can graduate. Tough but fair, maybe.
At the Int Base they broke the rules. No time for the rehabilitation part. So we bent a lot of the other rules as well. Basically we were just a slave labor force.
Anyway, I learned a lot from Shawn and he from me. Don't know where he got this saying, but he used to say: "If some is good, and more is better, then TOO MUCH ought to be just right!" That's how we designed the systems in the Music Studio, a UPS that occupied an entire two rooms, miles of air conditioning ducts, an air handler the size of a small car.
You may have seen the Studio in the background of the "We Stand Tall" video, the tapestry fabric. Behind that fabric is a sound deadening system designed by Shawn. lots of PolarFleece and woven polyester batting.
Real studios use fiberglass for that situation, because it doesn't burn. But L. Ron Hubbard didn't like fiberglass. He was good with asbestos but not the evil glass. So we used fabric instead and created a true firetrap.
We worked together in a tiny office under Martin Reid. Amy Scobee, Shawn and me. What a circus! One time Shawn befriended a crow with a broken wing. Kept him in the office. With predictable results.
After our adventures in the Garage he went on to work in Audio for a time and then to the Port Captain's Office. He did all the programming for the big sign in front of the Building 36 entrance. You know, the one that flickers and never works right. Dos machines eventually die.
As do we all. So sad to hear about Shawn passing on alone, but possibly he had caregivers around. Maybe even a real minister. We'll never know.
Some of that Steely Dan for his send-off:
"Learn to work the saxophone
And I'll play just what I feel
Drink scotch whiskey all night long
And die behind the wheel"
In later years I mainly knew him as the guy you had to see to get your passport to go overseas.
We met in a nasty situation, and it only got worse. But he never succumbed to the madness entirely.
This is one of the ways that a cult is not just “a niche religion, much like all religions.” A cult needs to control its victims. To the day the victims die. Alone.
The next time some both-siding “journalist” asks this question about how come critics consider the Co$ a cult, these stories would be yet one more reply.