Crime & Safety

Update: Bellevue Police Say Foul Play Suspected in Toddler's Disappearance

The missing boy's mother has declined to take a polygraph test, Bellevue Police told reporters Tuesday morning.

Editor's note: Bellevue Police revealed new details in the case at a 3:30 p.m. briefing Tuesday. .

Foul play is one of the possibilities in the weekend disappearance of a 2-year-old boy from a car, Bellevue Police reported.

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

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Sky Metalwala's mother, Julia Biryukova, morning, telling police she had left the boy unattended in her unlocked car after she ran out of gas in the 2600 block of 112th Avenue Northeast in Bellevue and walked to a gas station with her 4-year-old daughter. 

Tyler said police continue to ask that people who may have been passing on the street where Sky disappeared, which is between State Route 520 and Northeast 24th Street and close to Interstate 405 and the Bellevue Montessori School, to call through the NORCOM dispatch center at 425-577-5656.

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"We haven't received many tips at this time, which is why we encourage people to call," Tyler said. "We really would love for people to call, even if they think it was insignificant."

Police said they found no gas can near Biryukova's vehicle and that her car started right up. No sign of forced entry was found on the vehicle.

"We suspect foul play. Nothing about this story adds up," Bellevue Police Maj. Mike Johnson told television reporters. (Click here to see raw video of Johnson's interview with reporters from KIRO TV.)

Neither parent has been named a suspect, and police have said both are cooperating with the investigation, though Johnson told reporters that Biryukova has refused to take a polygraph test.

"You’d think that someone that is as close to a family as a mother is would be willing to do anything and everything to solve this case," he told reporters.

Metalwala's father, Monday evening but the results were inconclusive. His attorney said he would return to the Bellevue Police Station on Tuesday to take another round of tests.

Law enforcement officials spent much of Monday searching the area surrounding Biryukova's downtown Redmond apartment. Residents of the , where Biryukova lives, said FBI investigators went door to door asking neighbors about the family.

Details also surfaced Monday regarding Biryukova 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.

In a 2010 protection order requested by Biryukova, the mother said her husband had been physically abusive toward her and had threatened to kill her if she sought custody of their children.

"The most recent (incidents) have been his threats to kill me if I say anything against him or if in any way I proceed with action of seeking custody of our two small children," Biryukova wrote in the protection order request, which has been obtained by Patch. "I live in constant fear of my life and my children's life."

For his part, Solomon Metalwala said Biryukova was battling a mental illness, was suicidal, and had dreams of harming her children.

"She began to have dreams about killing our children, even telling me of her dreams about strangling our youngest child," Metlawala said in a court document related to the couple's divorce that was filed in King County Superior Court and obtained by Patch.

Both parents were also cited in 2009 for leaving Sky, then just an infant, unattended in a vehicle.

Click here to read .

Check Patch later this afternoon for updates on this developing story.

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.

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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