Man Who Spent $100,000 To Look Like Justin Bieber Died Of Drug Overdose: Coroner

“In death itself there can be nothing terrible, for the act of death annihilates sensation; but there are many roads to death, and some of them justly formidable, even to the bravest: but so various are the modes of going out of the world, that to be born may have been a more painful thing than to die, and to live may prove a more troublesome thing than either,” Charles Caleb Colton wrote that in his 1820 volume Lacon, which launched his literary star. But you’ll know Colton better for this phrase: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Both those quotations could easily be applied to the brief life and recent death of Tobias Strebel, the man famous for spending $100,000 to look like his idol, Justin Bieber. The former Botched star died with Valium, Xanax, and other drugs in his system, according to a Los Angeles County coroner report obtained by TheWrap. “Test results indicate that Strebel had drugs including Valium, Xanax and alcohol in his system, as well as the sleep aid temazepam,” TheWrap writes. Strebel was found in a state of “moderate decomposition” in a Motel 6 in Los Angeles’ North Hills neighborhood on August 21 last year. Authorities have characterized his death as accidental, but it feels like the inevitable end to a life spent chasing an impossible dream: To look like Justin Bieber. “What brought me to Bieber was the whole package: the full cheeks, the full temples, the bright open eyes, the full luscious lips, and spatial framing… [he’s] just extraordinarily beautiful,” Strebel said when featured on Botched. Strebel went by the name Toby Sheldon in life, but he was only ever seen through the lens of somebody else. Maybe it’s what he would have wanted.