Born in Crasna Putnei, he became teacher of Romanian language and literature and later editor at the Romanian-language newspaper Zorile Bucovinei following his graduation from the Alecu Russo Pedagogical Institute in Bălți in 1964.
Motrescu was then teacher of Romanian language and literature at a middle school in Krasna Ilska (Crasna Ilschi) from 1964 to 1967.
After this, he was employed as a literary editor and later correspondent at the Romanian-language newspaper Zorile Bucovinei, also publishing articles and poetry in other publications such as Cultura and Tinerimea Moldovei.
Ukrainian Romanian writer and activist Vasile Tărâțeanu asserted that he was likely killed by agents of the KGB, the Soviet Union's secret police, in the forests around Krasnoilsk (Crasna or Crasna-Ilschi).
[1] According to Ukrainian Romanian writer, translator and journalist Arcadie Suceveanu, Motrescu's disappearance served as an indirect warning by the KGB to the new generation of young Romanian poets from Northern Bukovina of the time, which "grew and formed under the spectre of the death of Ilie Motrescu".