Julia Roberts' Half-Sister Nancy Motes Dies of Apparent Drug Overdose
Julia Roberts' loved ones are grieving a tragic loss today. The August: Osage County actress' half-sister Nancy Motes has died of an apparent drug overdose at age 37, the family said in a statement to the New York Daily News on Monday, Feb. 10.
The body of Motes, the youngest sibling of Roberts and her older brother, actor Eric Roberts, was apparently discovered on Sunday, Feb. 9. "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 statement read. "There is no official report from the Coroner's office yet," it continued. "The family is both shocked and devastated.
"Nancy Motes was found dead at a residence in the bathroom yesterday, pronounced dead by the LA Fire Department at 2:12 PM yesterday. Not sure whose residence it was. She was found in a bathtub that had water in it. We're taking it as a suicide, not a drowning."
"She's being examined today. We are waiting for the doctor to provide his findings," the statement to Us continued. "There were prescription and non-prescription drugs found at the scene. Cannot tell you what those drugs were. The role the drugs may or may not have played is not yet known. The investigator at the scene listed at this point that he is going with suicide and we are waiting for the doctor to finish the examination. We haven't gotten anything yet."
“When I was in high school and she was an adult, she would just let me know that I was definitely overweight,” Motes said at the time.
“It just makes me feel incredibly hurt and very sad,” added Motes, who once weighed nearly 300 pounds before her decision to undergo gastric bypass surgery in June 2010.
She said she hoped her transformation would help repair their fractured relationship, but she noted it was still “a work in progress.”
“It’s not going to be fixed overnight, nor do I think it’s going to be fixed at this point by me just getting skinny.”
At the time of the interview, Motes was living in a coastal apartment with her fiance John Dilbeck, a film and TV locations manager.
The couple had planned to wed in May.
Motes, the daughter of Roberts' mother Betty Lou and stepfather Michael Motes, also is the half-sister of actor Eric Roberts, 57.