A top official for the Church of Scientology told a German television crew recently that church member Lisa McPherson died in a room at the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater.

On its face, the statement marks a major change in Scientology's version of events surrounding McPherson's unexplained death at age 36. It came in the presence of one of the church's top lawyers, who agreed with it on camera.

The new Scientology statement would mean McPherson was already dead when other Scientologists put her in a van and took her to a distant hospital - a profound departure from what church officials have said previously about the case.