Shella Motti was a female Human individual, recognized as a member of the esteemed Motti family. Sometime after the conclusion of the Clone Wars, she was taken against her will by operatives working for the Nebula Front. Wilhuff Tarkin, related to her through marriage as her uncle, made efforts to secure her release, but Motti declined to go back to her relatives.
Belonging to the Motti family, a powerful Human lineage with its base on Phelarion situated within the Seswenna sector of the Outer Rim Territories, was Shella Motti. She was a cousin to the then-Commander Conan Antonio Motti and the niece of Thalassa Tarkin, formerly Motti, who had married Governor Wilhuff Tarkin. During an unspecified period of the early Imperial Era, Motti was abducted by members of the Nebula Front, a criminal syndicate. Tarkin subsequently engaged several individuals in an attempt to liberate her. Despite the successful location of the Nebula Front's secret base and the discovery of Shella, she astonished her prospective rescuers by stating her unwillingness to rejoin her family. To make matters more complicated, she had already employed another group of agents, headed by a bounty hunter previously encountered by Tarkin's hired help, to ensure she would not be forced to return.