Scientology leader's wife 'spotted' looking wildly different, 9 years after vanishing.

The wife of controversial Scientology leader, David Miscavige, has reportedly been spotted about a decade after disappearing from the public eye.

Shelly Miscavige has not appeared in public since August 2007 leading to widespread speculation that she is missing.

However, journalist and Scientology expert Tony Ortega has published a lengthy report on his website refuting claims Shelly is missing, reporting he believes she has been spotted twice in the last year alone. Ortega says she is residing in a small town called Crestline in California, a town just kilometres from a Scientology compound known as the Church of Spiritual Technology.

Image: Screenshot via YouTube/Lip TV

Ortega writes that he believes Shelly went missing in 2005 after her husband, David, "blew up" over some changes she made at the Church's International base. It is believed she went missing just a week later.

Since then, now 55-year-old Shelly has only appeared in public once to attend her fathers funeral in 2007 where she attended in the presence of Scientology “handlers.”

Speaking with a woman he refers to as Rachel, Ortega says his source has lived in the Crestline region for her entire life and both her and her husband are "90 per cent certain" they have spotted Shelly Miscavige in the area twice in the last year.

Watch: Leah Remini talks to ABC about her time in the church. Post continues after video.

“She was a thin, smaller woman, escorted by two men,” Rachel says in Ortega's piece. “Dishevelled. Almost like a drug addict, or like she was homeless.”

She went on to say the woman appeared "frail" and had two men alongside her when they spotted her outside a hardware store in December last year.

“They seemed to be leading her, like you would someone who was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. It was awkward."

Just months later, in April of this year, Rachel believed she spotted Shelly again.

"This time, Rachel says she was at Goodwin & Sons Market, a few blocks away from the hardware store, when the same woman came in, again escorted by two younger men. The woman had the same kind of appearance as the previous time, but Rachel didn’t notice if it was the same two young men," Ortega wrote.

The apparent disappearance of Shelly has been the subject of international headlines for years. In particular, her disappearance has been widely reported after actress Leah Remini forced the case into the public eye after her high-profile exit from the church.

It has been widely speculated that 46-year-old Remini left the church of Scientology in July of 2013 after questioning David Miscavige on his missing wife.

Remini proceeded to file a missing persons report in August 2013.

However, just days later the LAPD closed the case, telling E! News "the LAPD has classified the report as unfounded, indicating that Shelly is not missing."