Julia Roberts‘ half sister Nancy Motes was found dead by her fiance Sunday afternoon at a rented house where she was pet sitting.
Police and paramedics responded to the death scene around 2pm on Sunday where Motes body was found in a bathtub that contained water. Both prescription and non-prescription drugs were found at the scene. According to a Los Angeles County Coroner official, the death was originally reported as a suicide but the final cause of death will likely take weeks to determine.
Motes, 37, was the daughter of Roberts’ mother Betty Lou and stepfather Michael Motes. She was estranged from her famous half-sister, whom she said taunted her for years about her weight problem.
“When I was in high school and she was an adult, she would just let me know that I was definitely overweight,” Motes, who once weighed nearly 300 pounds said at the time. “She would make it quite clear to me, and in a not-so-nice manner.”
“It just makes me feel incredibly hurt and very sad,” she added. Motes underwent gastric bypass surgery in June 2010, and said she hoped her transformation would help repair her relationship with Roberts.
The Roberts family issued a statement about Nancy’s death, saying, “It is with deep sadness that the family of Nancy Motes … confirms that she was found dead in Los Angeles yesterday of an apparent drug overdose. The family is both shocked and devastated.”
An autopsy is scheduled for Monday.