Crime & Safety

Bellevue Police Department Releases Details in Missing Toddler Case; Seeks Witnesses

The mother of 2-year-old Sky Metalwala told police she was taking the boy to a hospital because he was sick.

Editor's note: this story was updated at 6:30 p.m.

BELLEVUE, WA. --- The Bellevue Police Department revealed new details Tuesday in the , whose mother reported him missing Sunday morning.

Police said that after , where the boy lived with his mother, Julia Biryukova, and his 4-year-old sister, the police found just one neighbor who reported seeing the boy within the past two weeks.

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Bellevue Police Department spokeswoman Officer Carla Iafrate asked anyone who has seen Sky and Biryukova, 30, in the past few weeks to call the police tip line at 425-452-2564.

"We're talking to anybody in the public who might have a tip. We're talking to neighbors. We're talking to friends. We're talking to people in stores that maybe she's visited. We're just trying to locate who last saw Sky," she said.

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Police have said that foul play is one of the possibilities in Sky's disappearance.

"We're now two days on and we haven't heard from him," said Bellevue Police spokesman Officer Seth Tyler earlier Tuesday.

So far, the police have no suspects in the boy's disappearance. Biryukova, 30, told police that she was taking her son to Overlake Hospital Medical Center in Bellevue on Sunday because he was ill, and she said she left him asleep in the car parked in the 2600 block of 112th Avenue Northeast when she went to get help after running out of gas, Iafrate said.

Biryukova told police that she walked a mile to a gas station, then called a friend who brought her back to the car, Iafrate said. The friend looked for Sky in the car, and then called police, Iafrate said.

A passerby reported seeing the empty car about an hour before police were called at 9:50 a.m., Iafrate said. Police continue to ask people to call the tip line if they saw Biryukova's silver 1998 Acura Integra coupe parked southbound on 112th Avenue Northeast on Sunday morning between 7 and 10 a.m.

Iafrate said the parents have been cooperative in the investigation, though Biryukova has so far declined to submit to a polygraph test.

Patch's call to Biryukova's divorce attorney has not been returned. King 5 TV reported Tuesday that Biryukova has hired a new attorney who specializes in criminal defense law.

Sky's father, Solomon Metalwala, 36, of Kirkland, took a polygraph test, but the results were inconclusive.

His lawyer, Clay Terry, said that the results were skewed due to the stress of his child being missing and that he has agreed to come in again to take the polygraph test. 

Details surfaced Monday regarding Biryukova’s and Solomon Metalwala's troubled relationship. The couple began divorce proceedings in 2010 and each had accused the other of posing a threat to their two children.

The state Child Protective Services has taken custody of the 4-year-old, though Iafrate said she did not have the reason why.

Metalwala has not seen his children for several months, Terry said, but the parents had come to an agreement over custody last week that gave Metalwala visitation rights.

Terry said that Biryukova's attorney contacted him last Friday and said that her client changed her mind, but Sky disappeared before they could have another meeting over custody.

Terry said that Metalwala still believes that Sky has not left Washington. According to Terry, during their custody dispute, Metalwala blocked Biryukova from traveling out of state with the children or obtaining passports for Sky and his sister, out of fear that Biryukova would take the children to Canada or to Russia, where she reportedly has family.

"We're not going to let the children have passports at all," Terry said. "She will be gone."

Police have issued these details about the missing boy:

Sky Elijah Metalwala

Age 2, 2’10” tall, 39 pounds, black hair, brown eyes.

Sky was last seen on Nov. 6, 2011, in the 2600 block of 112th Ave. N.E., Bellevue, Wash.

He was last seen wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, black and aqua blue sweatpants and white socks.

Sky was in the silver 1998 Acura Integra three door coupe pictured when he disappeared.

Police ask anyone who was traveling Sunday morning along 112th Avenue Northeast, between State Route-520 and Northeast 24th Street, to please call the Bellevue Police Tip line at 425-452-2564.


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