UPDATE: L.A. police close inquiry into Scientology leader's wife

By Eric Kelsey

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Los Angeles Police Department on Thursday closed their inquiry into the whereabouts of the wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige, a police spokesman said.

The location of Miscavige's wife, Shelly, had come under police investigation after actress Leah Remini, who recently left the Church of Scientology, filed a missing person report, a source close to the actress told Reuters.

The LAPD would not say who filed the report or when it was filed.

"The investigation has been closed and we consider the report to be unfounded," Los Angeles Police Detective Gus Villanueva said. He declined to elaborate on the details in the report and why it was closed.

Shelly Miscavige's whereabouts have been a focus of church critics, who claim she has not appeared in public in six years.

By filing the report with police, Remini could have posed a challenge to the church, which relies heavily on its celebrity members for visibility. Tom Cruise and John Travolta are among the most well-known members and only a handful of celebrities have left.

Remini, 43, who is best known for her role in the CBS comedy "The King of Queens," recently left the church after coming under special scrutiny after she asked about the whereabouts of Shelly Miscavige, the New York Post newspaper reported.

Remini had asked why Shelly Miscavige was not at the 2006 wedding of Cruise to actress Katie Holmes, the newspaper said. Remini's representatives have not confirmed that event.

The Church of Scientology, which has said in the past that Shelly Miscavige is not missing and has been working "non-stop" in the church, pushed back against such reports.

"This is just harassment," the church said in a statement. "It is a publicity stunt cooked up by a small band of unemployed fanatics who live on the fringe of the Internet."

The religion, which was founded in 1954 by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, believes man is an immortal being whose experience extends beyond one lifetime.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Mary Milliken and Stacey Joyce)