On the morning of November 6, 2011, Sky Elijah Metalwala, who was 2 years old, went missing in Bellevue, Washington.
His mother, Julia Biryukova, said Sky was sick, so she put him and his older sister in the car to drive to a nearby hospital.
According to her statement, she ran out of gas and left Sky in the car while she looked for help.
When she returned approximately an hour and a half later, she discovered Sky missing.
Personal Background and Legal Issues
Sky Elijah Metalwala was born on September 6, 2009, to Solomon Metalwala and Julia Biryukova.
Sky Metalwala's parents were immigrants and had moved to the United States from other countries.
Solomon Metalwala came from Pakistan, while Julia Biryukova was born in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union.
Julia later said she had endured shock therapy and harsh punishment as a child, which severely affected her self-esteem.
Solomon was managing a convenience store in Bellevue, Washington, when he and Julia met in 1997.
While Julia and Solomon enjoyed work and many leisure activities together, there was some friction between them.
Julia later told a psychologist that she had realized her boyfriend could be "very controlling" and she had become emotionally dependent on him.
Despite this, she married him in 2003 in a quick ceremony in his mother's kitchen.
In 2009 they gave birth to Sky.
When Sky was two months old, his parents left him alone in their car in a Target parking lot for nearly an hour on a day when the temperature was 27 °F (−3 °C).
Both parents were arrested for reckless endangerment after police called them to the car, and security camera footage showed they were inside much longer than they claimed.
The charges were later dropped after they agreed to take a parenting class.
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| Sky Elijah Metalwala and his father, Solomon Metalwala |
Divorce
In early 2010, on her 29th birthday, Julia was briefly hospitalized for severe obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) after telling Solomon she had dreamed of harming their children.
This prompted Solomon to separate from her and file for divorce shortly afterward.
After their separation, Julia texted Solomon about suicidal thoughts, which she later claimed were to get his attention.
During her third hospitalization, she was found to be a danger to herself and others but her condition later improved.
After her release, Julia voluntarily checked into the University of Washington Medical Center, while Solomon and the children moved to his parents' home after their condominium was foreclosed.
The couple strongly contested the divorce, with Julia accusing Solomon of abuse and claiming she feared for her life.
Solomon denied these allegations, saying they were false and that Julia’s mental health issues made her unstable and unable to properly care for their children.
Child Protective Services investigated a claim that Solomon had hurt his daughter but found it to be false.
However, Solomon was banned from seeing his children for a year during the investigation.
Both spouses also sought protection orders against each other at various times during the case.
In September 2010, Julia was awarded full custody of both children, and she prevented Solomon from seeing them.
In November 2011, a successful mediation session led to an agreement giving Julia custody and Solomon full visitation.
But shortly after, Julia decided to void the agreement, claiming she had felt pressured to attend the mediation session.
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| The couple |
Disappearance
Julia Biryukova stated that on the morning of November 6, 2011, Sky woke up sick in their Redmond apartment.
She claimed she put him and his sister in her car and drove towards Overlake Medical Center in Bellevue.
Julia later said that on 112th Avenue N.E., near the tall concrete noise barrier by Washington State Route 520, her car ran out of gas.
Julia parked the car on the side of the road and left Sky in his car seat while she took Maile to find help.
She walked to a Chevron station about a mile away and, instead of getting gas or arranging for someone to bring it, she called a friend who picked her up and drove her back to the car.
When she returned, Sky was missing, so she reported him to the police.
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| Julia Biryukova and Sky |
Investigation
After Julia Biryukova reported Sky's disappearance, Bellevue police started their investigation and contacted Solomon before noon that day.
Searchers combed a 20-block area around the car but no trace of Sky was found.
Bellevue police soon became suspicious of Julia’s story.
Tests showed that her car had enough fuel and was in good working condition.
During the hour she spent wandering before reaching the gas station, she seemingly did not try to get help from closeby residents.
Julia had left home with a supposedly sick child but had not taken her wallet, purse, or phone.
Additionally, no gas can was found in the car.
Julia decided not to answer questions from detectives after being asked about inconsistencies in her story.
She also refused to take a lie detector test.
However, she allowed investigators to search her car, computer, and home, but they found no sign of Sky.
Her car was unlocked and showed no signs of forced entry.
Police also searched Solomon’s house but found nothing.
Although Solomon took a lie detector test the night after Sky disappeared and another the next day, the results were not made public.
There were doubts about whether Sky had been in the car that morning.
Drivers who passed by the parked Acura did not notice anything unusual or see a child inside.
Neighbors at Julia's apartment complex said she and her children hardly ever went outside, and no one had seen Sky for at least two weeks.
However, her second child Maile told the police that Sky had been in the car that morning.
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| Maile and Sky |
Julia Biryukova Speaks
Two weeks after Sky's disappearance, Julia spoke to the media for the first time.
ABC News reached out to her using an email address provided by her relatives.
She repeated that she had no idea where the child was and criticized her ex-husband as a "sadistic Muslim Pakistani" who wasn’t being truthful.
Regarding the case, she said her lawyer had advised her not to discuss it, and she avoided answering a direct question about whether she had run out of gas that morning.
ABC News couldn't verify if Julia was the one who responded, as she was reportedly staying with relatives.
However, Solomon said the responses sounded like something she would say and suggested she might be trying to make him angry.
After reviewing the emails, ABC News forwarded them to the Bellevue police.
While the police couldn’t comment on them, they thought the emails could be useful for their investigation.
Authorities took Maile from Julia after her brother's disappearance and placed her in foster care.
Solomon was allowed to visit Maile twice a week while he sought custody in the divorce court, which eventually granted him custody.
The divorce was finalized in January 2012.
Theory
Police said they believed Sky did not wander off by himself.
In the absence of new information or credible leads, and with Julia's story remaining questionable, theories about Sky's disappearance have suggested that his mother might have been involved.
If Sky is still alive, it’s believed that she either allowed someone else to take him, or that his presence in the car was fabricated.
"She invented the hospital story, and when no one believed it, she hired an attorney," Leslie Clay Berry, Solomon's lawyer, told the Seattle Weekly in 2013.
Solomon believed his son was alive, but possibly outside the U.S.
In the spring of 2011, after the last record of Sky being outside Julia's home, Solomon remembered that Julia's father had visited from Ukraine.
He speculated whether the older man could have taken Sky back to Ukraine with him.
However, by 2013, he admitted he wasn’t sure how that could have happened.
Unlike her client, Berry, Solomon's attorney doesn't believe Sky is alive.
"I don’t think he’s alive," she said in 2013.
"Solomon doesn’t like it when I say that, but that’s my belief."
While she believes Julia is responsible for Sky's death, she considers it might have been due to neglect rather than intentional harm.
Berry, is convinced that Sky was never in the car that morning and that the police wouldn’t have found any evidence in the apartment.
"She's a clean freak and probably bleached everything," she said to the newspaper, referring to Julia's obsessive cleanliness.
The theory that Julia Biryukova might be involved in Sky's disappearance gained traction when police noticed similarities between her story and a crime drama episode that aired shortly before Sky vanished.
In the episode, a couple falsely claims their baby was abducted when their car was stolen, only for it to be revealed that they buried the child after an accident.
Major Mike Johnson noted the striking resemblance between the episode and the case, and Julia Biryukova's husband mentioned that Law & Order was her favorite show.
Julia's online activity also drew attention.
On her Facebook page, she had many photos of Maile but very few of Sky.
Additionally, in the months leading up to the disappearance, she created a profile on SeekingArrangements.com.
This is a dating site for women looking for wealthy men to provide financial support in exchange for a romantic relationship.
Julia was looking for "financial stability" and asked for $3,000–5,000 in cash each month.
Investigators said they didn’t believe Julia's story and suspect a crime might have happened.
However, they didn’t officially name her as a main suspect or charge her with child endangerment.
This decision was based on a strategic approach to preserve the possibility of future prosecution should more concrete evidence.
Later, Solomon's lawyer explained that another reason for not charging Julia was that if the police arrested her, she and her lawyer would have access to all the evidence gathered so far, which neither they nor Solomon wanted.
Ongoing efforts
In 2015, on the fourth anniversary of Sky's disappearance, Bellevue's new police chief, Steve Mylett, publicly urged Julia Biryukova to speak with them again.
"I am convinced you hold the key to finding Sky," he stated in a local newspaper.
Although the department had previously said it had followed up on all reported leads, Mylett claimed that Solomon had provided some new, unspecified information that might be helpful.
Updated images showing how Sky might look at that age were released alongside the original photos.
The investigation has remained open, with authorities continuing to explore all leads and potential evidence.
Solomon Metalwala has remained actively involved in the search for his son, cooperating fully with the investigation.
The local community and various organizations have also contributed to efforts to find Sky, organizing search parties and raising awareness about the case.
As the search continues, the hope for answers and justice persists.
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