Carrie Slaughterbeck and Alan Green, her boyfriend,
moved together from Indiana to Clearwater in June 1996 to work for Kim
Bright Cassano, a prominent Scientologist who owns several Clearwater businesses.
Slaughterbeck’s parents, Earl and Diane Slaughterbeck of Lafayette, Indiana,
say Cassano became Carrie’s nutritional counselor, advising her to take
lots of Super Blue Green Algae, a product Cassano distributes through a
multilevel marketing program.
The algae is harvested from upper Lake Klamath in
Southern Oregon and is popular among Scientologists in Clearwater. Sales
literature promotes it for everyone--pregnant women, newborn babies, and
the family pet. Detractors describe it as ‘pond scum.’
Carrie Slaughterbeck took as many as 30 algae capsules at a time, says her twin sister Sandy Slaughterbeck. She also took other vitamins recommended by Cassano and signed up for several Scientology courses. Green now says Cassano was pressuring the couple to sign up for more expensive Scientology auditing courses and indicated that she encouraged them to move to Clearwater just so they would join the Church of Scientology.
As news accounts poured out about the lawsuit surrounding the death of Lisa McPherson, Green returned home from an overnight trip to Orlando and found Slaughterbeck dead in their Island Way apartment. He summoned Cassano to the apartment while police investigated.
In an interview with the (St. Petersburg) Times, Scientology officials initially said Carrie ‘never set foot into the church in Clearwater,’ until shown her certificates of attendance at courses she took in 1996. Ironically, the certificates were signed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, though he died in 1986.
Slaughterbeck was 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighed 101 pounds when her body was found. Family members said she’d liked being slim because she thought it would help her gain modeling jobs.
Medical Examiner Wood attributed Carrie’s death to ‘sudden and unexpected death--possible mitral valve prolapse.’ Carrie did have a heart problem, with an irregular heartbeat.
The FDA has twice ordered blue green algae off the
market because distributers made health claims for it. State and federal
officials question it’s safety amid complaints from consumers who say it’s
caused increased heart rates, breathing difficulties and other problems.
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