Jenny Burpee, former Scientology Sea Orger and Cat White friend who helped find her, dead at 39

In September and October 2015, we found ourselves at the Underground Bunker scrambling to keep up with a major national story that we’d helped to break: Actor Jim Carrey’s girlfriend, Cathriona “Cat” White, had been found dead of an apparent suicide at 30. We were the first to add the detail that Cat, an immigrant from Ireland, had become involved in Scientology in Hollywood and was doing its “Survival Rundown” when she ended her life.

Carrey’s history of outspoken jabs at Scientology helped make this a sensational story, and the press was thirsty for any detail about the young Irish woman. Some of those details were supplied by her good friend, a fellow Scientologist and struggling actor named Jenny Burpee.

Jenny described finding Cat’s body in interviews she gave tabloids, and we later learned that it was a friend of hers named Den Bradshaw who had actually found Cat’s lifeless body.

But there was no question that Jenny and Cat were tight and had been for years. Jenny was one of the first friends that Cat made when she came to the U.S., and helped her find a place in Hollywood’s young Scientologist set.

[Jenny and Cat were tight]

Jenny Burpee was from a deeply involved Scientology family from Ottawa, and she had even served a stint in the Sea Org. But by the time she became close to Cat White, Jenny was following her own Hollywood dreams as a hopeful actor, producer, and event planner.

And even after leaving the Sea Org, she remained active in Scientology’s “The Way to Happiness” Foundation, and had marched with the foundation’s float in the Hollywood Christmas Parade, among other activities and fundraisers.

On September 28, 2015, Jenny and her friend Den headed over to the house where Cat had been staying after Jenny became concerned that Cat hadn’t been answering her texts.

A couple of years after Cat’s death, Jenny began making bizarre and disturbing statements on social media, which suggested she was going through her own difficult emotional time. We reached out to her, and it began a conversation that lasted, off and on, for a couple of years.

We told Jenny that we worried her lengthy involvement in Scientology would prevent her from getting proper care for her emotional problems. Scientology hates the mental health industry with a passion, and demonizes all things related to psychiatry or psychology. Even former members of the organization can find it very difficult to overcome that conditioning and seek professional help for emotional issues.

Sadly, Jenny’s communications to us only became more incoherent over time. Our last email from her was in 2019.

Last Monday, on February 27, Jenny Burpee was found in her residence according to the LA County Coroner, which has deferred her cause of death pending further investigation.

“Jenny was one of my close friends while in the Sea Org,” says Clarissa Adams. “She and two other friends and I all stayed in the same room at ‘The Complex’ in Los Angeles for a period of time. Our married friend’s husband was sent out of town on a ‘mission’ or something so we all stayed in their room while he was gone. It was a bright spot in my time there. It was basically a slumber party with good friends every night for a few months, so Jenny and the other two girls made my days way more bearable.  

“Jenny was a light. She was silly and fun and she was kind and caring. Before her mental decline she seemed poised to do great things. 

“Writing this, I have no idea what actually happened to her or how she passed, but she will always hold a special place in my heart and I can only hope that she’s found peace.”

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