SKY METALWALA - 2 yo/Male - Bellevue/ Spokane WA

The
father of a 2-year-old boy who disappeared in Bellevue has been awarded
custody of his older sister, pending the removal of a protection order
in the case.The
girl has been in state foster car since Sky Metalwala went missing Nov.
6. Sky's mother said he vanished when she left him alone in a car to
walk to a gas station.
At the time, Sky's mother, Julia Biryukova, had custody of Sky and his 4-year-old sister. But KING-TV reports (http://bit.ly/vjMFfo ) that Sky's father, Solomon Metalwala, was awarded custody of the girl at a hearing in Kent on Monday.
Metalwala
attended the hearing. Biryukova did not. The couple has been in bitter
divorce and custody proceedings since last year.
The
court commissioner granted Biryukova visitation rights, under strict
guidelines. Metalwala will gain custody once a restraining order that
previously kept him away from the children is vacated.
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Missing-Wash-boy-s-father-gets-custody-of-sister-2345495.php

snipped from above article:

"The court commissioner granted Biryukova visitation rights, under strict guidelines. Metalwala will gain custody once a restraining order that previously kept him away from the children is vacated."

NOTE the words in RED...the d@mn mother will get visitation rights. What? I can't believe they would trust her with the child after her lying story about Sky. That's ridiculous. She'll probably run with the little girl and kill her too.

Posted on December 21, 2011 at 8:19 AM

GRESHAM, Ore. – Volunteers in Gresham are trying to
help in the search for a missing Seattle boy by spreading the word
about his disappearance and posting flyers.

Two-year-old Sky Metalwala has been reported him missing on Nov. 6.

The volunteers have mostly been focusing on freeway routes stretching
from Seattle, south to Portland and Gresham and then on to the Canadian border.

"I do this because I'm a mom. And if it was my kids, I'd hope
someone would do the same thing for me. I've done it for a couple other
missing kids as well and it's kind of struck a place in my heart I
can't get away from now," said Gresham volunteer Amy Walcott.

The boy’s mother told police that she left him alone in a car in Bellevue when she ran out of gas and had to go and get help.

She said when she returned to the car, he was gone.

Sky’s father said he believes his estranged wife knows what exactly what happened to the boy and has lied to police.

As for the flyers, the volunteers said they were trying to target the
busy holiday travel season in their effort to spread the word about the missing boy.
http://www.kgw.com/news/local/Gresham-volunteers-help-search-for-missing-boy-136000368.html

December 26, 2011 7:48 AM EST

Investigations into the disappearance of Sky Metalwala, 2,
have uncovered photographs of the boy with bruises on his body, along
with a suicide note written by his mother, Julia Biryukova, and sent to
his father, Solomon Metalwala, as a text message in March 2010.

• 
  
  

(Photo: Facebook.com)
Sky Metalwala

According to Biryukova, the child was reported missing on Nov. 6.
However, it now appears the last time Sky was actually seen was by a
neighbor, outside Biryukova's Redwood apartment, in October... some
three weeks before the missing person report was filed, said Seattlepi.com.

Meanwhile, stories of Biryukova not cooperating with the police continue to fly around.

"It seems like she's kind of on lockdown. She's not talking to
anybody," said John Davis, an acquaintance of Biryukova's from church.

The bruises on Sky were initially blamed on Metalwala. However, he was cleared of any charges in that matter.

"Well, he passed the polygraph exams, he passed the CPS
investigations, and the hospital check-ups proved that there was no
abuse. Everything was a lie," said Metalwala's lawyer, Clay Terry.

Sky's father was recently handed sole custody of his 4-year-old
daughter and is now fighting to strip Biryukova of visitation rights.

"We are objecting not because we don't want Julia to see the child,
but because the child is a witness in what potentially could be a very
tragic case," Terry explained.

According to Biryukova, she was taking Sky to the hospital on the
morning of Nov. 6. She said her car ran out of fuel and she left Sky in
the rear and walked to a gas station, taking his sister with her. She
alleges that Sky was missing when she returned.

This latest report could be one more reason to be suspicious of Biryukova's involvement in Sky's disappearance.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/272698/20111226/sky-metalwala-missing-new-details-emerge.htm

24th December,2011
New Shocking details in the Sky Metalwala disappearance reveal
bruises and other signs of abuse on the children, as well as a suicide
note written by Julie Biryukova. Could these details lend a hand in
finding out what happened to the missing child?

The
latest new developments in the search for missing baby Sky Metalwala
reveal far more than what's been released since the boy vanished on
November 6, 2011. In fact, the latest details kind of make Julie
Biryukova look even more suspicious. Honestly, if this woman doesn't get
any more suspicious, she may end up being labeled the next "Tot Mom"
and Casey Anthony will have to step aside.
You
see, some new investigative reports have been released and submitted to
the media and these reports contain disturbing photographs that aren't
released for public view. Allegedly, the photos depict baby Sky with
bruises and signs of child abuse. A man named John Davis, who attends
church with Julie Biryukova, is named in the reports several times. The
man says the following:
"It seems like she's kind of on lockdown. She's not talking to anybody."
While
Julie blames Solomon Metalwala for the bruises pictured on the missing
boy's body, the father's lawyer says that he passed polygraph tests and
was cleared of those accusations. So who put those bruises on baby Sky?
Solomon
Metalwala now has custody of his daughter, four year old Maile. Julie
is fighting to get visitation rights of her daughter, but Solomon and
his lawyer are fighting this -- and for good reason.
Sky Metalwala and other missing children
Missing
baby Sky was technically last seen at least two weeks prior to "being
left alone in the car" by his mother. So it's unknown as to whether or
not the boy went missing then, or sooner. It seems that the presence of
bruises and other abuse allegations are becoming common in missing
children's cases. For instance , the disappearance of 20-month old Ayla
Reynolds is taking Maine, and the nation, by shock. The mother of
missing baby Ayla Reynolds says that while in her father's care, the
child would display bruising on her thighs that couldn't be explained.
So is this a sign of abuse? It should also be pointed out that the baby
has a broken arm. There is also missing baby Lisa Irwin, who isn't
reported to have been abused, but the fact that the child's mother is a
drunk may have something to do with why she is missing.
With Sky
Metalwala being pictured with bruises, this doesn't bode well for the
investigation. From day one, Julie Biryukova has been a target of
suspicion and she has not been cooperative with investigators. Perhaps
Sky was a victim of something a little worse than a neglectful parent
who left him to be abducted.
http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474980949716
Posters note: This article isn't new, but I posted it because the photo of Sky in the car seat(with what looks like a black eye) is so eerily like one of Caylee. And the mother's inconsistent stories about what happened to Sky is the same too. LE should be looking for a rubbish bag somewhere in bush nearby IMO!

New leads in the case of a missing Seattle toddler suggest he may have been gone long before his mother informed anyone, his father said Thursday.

Sky Metalwala was reported missing in November by his mother, Julia Birakova, who said the child was taken from her car, which was parked by the side of the road. However, Sky's father, Solomon Metalwala, said he suspects the boy may have been missing since April.

Metalwala checked medical records, spoke with members of the Eastside medical community and found only one person -- a neighbor -- who had seen the child in April, seven months before he was reported missing.

"I believe anything is possible," he told KOMO-TV, Seattle. "We have no clue what is going on. Right now anything is possible."

Metalwala said Birakova's father visited form Ukraine in April, and he now suspects that he took the child back to the Ukraine with him. Metalwala also recalls Birakova asking to take the children to the Ukraine in an e-mail.

Birakova and Metalwala have been in a lengthy, bitter custody dispute for several months, which kept Metalwala from seeing his children for nearly a year.


Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2012/01/05/Tot-may-have-gone-missing-sooner/UPI-77901325795133/#ixzz1igt0b2Vr

Many theories have been floated on the whereabouts of 2-year-old Sky Metalwala.

The boy allegedly went missing just over two months ago
while in the custody of his mother, Redmond resident Julia Biryukova.
She, and Sky's father Solomon, had been in the midst of a bitter divorce and custody battle for their two children.

But Solomon Metalwala, of Kirkland, and his attorney Clay Terry are
speaking out with their own theories as to where the boy may be and are
taking action.

One of the ways they are moving forward is to request that Solomon be
granted sole custody of his daughter Maile, with no visitation by
Biryukova.

Solomon was granted custody of his daughter on Dec. 5. Maile, 5, was placed in foster care after her brother went missing.

"When Maile was picked up by the police, she looked gaunt and weighed only 29 pounds," Terry told the Reporter. "She went to a foster home with really nice people … She went from listless to active, and now she is doing great."

Terry claims that Maile gained more than seven pounds in six weeks with the foster family.

Solomon was back in court Friday to ask the judge to withhold
visitation for Biryukova due to the nature of the missing person's case.

"There are only two witnesses here. One of them is the person in
position of authority, which is the mother, and the other is a minor
child," said Terry, on Friday, arguing that any time that Maile spends
with Biryukova could jeopardize the investigation.

Solomon and Terry are working to figure out if the boy could be with a friend or family member of Biryukova.

But they are having a hard time getting solid evidence of where the boy was during May through October of 2011.

"We need answers," said Terry. "We are not saying Sky was definitely
not here after April, but we want to know when Sky was no longer here."

Solomon would not say if he has talked to Maile about the disappearance of Sky or if any new information has been found.

“I don’t want to put another burden on her to tell me where is Sky,”
Solomon said. “This burden that she has needs to release from her…”

Biryukova has decided not to take advantage of her visitation rights but wants to retain the option.

“She desperately wants to see her child," Biryukova's attorney Rob
Wyman told the judge. "… her decision not to visit at the moment is
purely out of wanting things to go right.”

No decision was made on the matter and another hearing is scheduled for Jan. 20.

Biryukova told police her car ran out of gas the morning of the
disappearance, as she attempted to take the boy to the hospital. She
left Sky in the unlocked car at the 2400 block of 112th Avenue Northeast
while she walked with Maile to get help.

When she returned to the car, approximately an hour later, he was gone.

Police later tested the car and found that it had gas and there were no mechanical issues.

Terry was blunt in calling her story a lie.

"We are talking about a life of a 2-year-old child, whose mother is
so vindictive and hateful, probably due to mental illness to some
degree, that she is obsessed with the thought that she must prevent
Solomon from (having) their children," Terry told the Reporter.
"She is not intelligent, and she definitely does not have what many
would consider a creative side … I am not saying that to be mean, but we
are in the trenches trying to come up with a way to circumvent Julia’s
silence while her baby is missing."

Terry and Solomon are holding out hope that the boy may be with a friend or family member of Biryukova.

One of their reasons for this is that other than one neighbor telling
police that she saw the boy two weeks before his disappearance, they
have found no evidence Sky was in his mother's care since April when her
father visited from the Ukraine.

"Julia did a bit of a shuffle on all of us …," said Terry. "I
suspected something, but because we were so wrapped up in the story that
Sky just recently disappeared, we were all looking to the left, and we
were not looking to the right."

When Solomon was granted custody of Maile he attempted to obtain her
medical records from the year that he did not see his daughter. The
doctor had not seen the two children in a year.

"Armed with this alarming information, just before Christmas, we
contacted the children’s health insurance carrier, who told us that
there had been no medical claims for payments made for either child in
2011," said Terry. "Now that was the shocker."

He and Solomon began sending letters out to Eastside doctors asking
them to contact the Bellevue Police if they treated either child during
the last year.

"We do not expect any positive replies, but we have to try since it is an open door," said Terry.

Terry said that other than the one neighbor's statement to police, no one has seen Sky since last May.

"The only person who certainly should have seen Sky was Julia’s brother, Stan, but he has said nothing to us," said Terry.

Stan Biryukova has not responded to the Reporter's requests for an interview.

"Some people think that (Biryukova's father) from the Ukraine took
the child back with him at the end of April," said Terry. "I tend not to
believe that, because there are too many hoops to get through to get a
child on a plane without all kinds of documents signed by parents."

Terry said that they do have evidence that Sky was in his mother's custody in April of 2011.

"It is possible to say that this case may have been cold before it was hot," said Terry.
http://www.kirklandreporter.com/news/136975233.html

When was Sky Metalwala last seen, and by whom?

That's what the father of the missing 2-year-old boy is trying to deduce.

In letters sent to hundreds of doctors, health-care providers and clinics on the Eastside, Solomon Metalwala is asking whether anyone recalls treating or seeing his son during the months leading up to his Nov. 6 disappearance.

The letter is accompanied by a flier with a number of photos of Sky and his 5-year-old sister, as well as a signed form giving physicians permission to release information on the boy.

Metalwala hopes to better pinpoint the last time his son was seen. Soon after the boy was reported missing by his mother, one neighbor told police she had spotted the boy about two weeks earlier.

The boy's mother, Julia Biryukova, told police she was driving with the two children to Overlake Hospital Medical Center on Nov. 6 when the car ran out of gas in the 2600 block of 112th Avenue Northeast in Bellevue. She said she left the sleeping Sky in his car seat while she and her daughter walked for help.

When she returned, she told police, Sky was gone. Since then, police have conducted an extensive search for Sky but have turned up few clues to his whereabouts.

Police have said that Biryukova's story has serious discrepancies. For one thing, the car she was driving was found to have plenty of gas and no mechanical problems.

Biryukova has declined to speak with police despite repeated entreaties. However, she has not been named a suspect nor a person of interest in her son's disappearance.

Police spokeswoman Carla Iafrate said Monday that police continue to focus their investigation on finding the missing child. "We have no new releasable information at this time," Iafrate said.

In the meantime, Solomon Metalwala has become increasingly desperate to find his son.

Biryukova, 30, and Metalwala, 36, were involved in a bitter and contentious divorce and custody battle when the boy disappeared.

The couple's daughter, Maile Metalwala, was taken into protective custody and placed in foster care by Child Protective Services after her brother disappeared. A King County Superior Court commissioner later allowed the girl to live with Solomon Metalwala at his mother's Kirkland home.

Solomon Metalwala was named the custodial parent of both children in December, giving him legal authority to request the medical records, said his attorney, Leslie Clay Terry III.

Terry said Maile weighed only 29 pounds when she was taken into foster care and that she had gained 8 pounds by the time she moved in with her father.

As Metalwala sought to care for her, he discovered she had not been seen by her previous pediatrician or any doctor they could find.

Further, Terry said, their medical carrier has told Metalwala that there have been no claims or requests for insurance payments to health-care providers.

That got them thinking, Terry said.

According to Bellevue police, one neighbor of Biryukova's claimed to have seen both children two weeks before the boy was reported missing in November. But Terry said police have told them there have been no other corroborating sightings of both children.

Terry said that civilian investigators have told Metalwala that information taken from Biryukova's Flickr account indicate that the last posted pictures of the boy were taken at Costco on June 15.

Surveillance pictures of Biryukova that were released by police in December show the mother alone, without her children, Terry said.

"What if we've been 'shuffled' or conned," he said. "What if the boy's been missing much longer than the mother has said? Who has seen Sky and when did they see him?"

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017205343_missingboy11m.html

One of the most important parts of searching for a missing person is not letting the subject fall to the wayside. After the original story has played out and the trail runs cold, it is difficult to get tips from the public when the story gets lost in the natural changes of the news cycle.

For Kirkland resident Solomon Metalwala, the search for his missing son Sky will take a new turn Feb. 18 with a vigil for the 2-year-old boy. The event will take place at 5:30 p.m. at the Bellevue Downtown Park, 10301 N.E. Fourth St., across the street from Bellevue Square Mall.

“(We are) learning from other families who have suffered the same loss of a child or a loved one,” said Metalwala’s attorney Clay Terry in an email to the Reporter, who also said that Solomon will take part in the event. “With the assistance and balloons suggestion from Jennifer Mau, of Search and Seek, we are going to put this together and make it another event on behalf of Sky.”

The event - which is being organized by New Hampshire-based LostNMissing, Inc., Search and Seek and Terry - will have a balloon release and candlelight vigil.

“We are first going to start with balloons that will have felt-pen messages written on them and released into the sky, allowing those who wish … to leave a thought or a prayer for Sky,” said Terry, who pointed out that Valentine’s Day will mark the 100th day since Sky’s disappearance.

Search and Seek and LostNMissing, Inc. are organizations that help families of missing people search for their loved ones and keep awareness about the search.



Sky went missing Nov. 6 when his mother, Redmond resident Julia Biryukova, claims he was kidnapped from her unlocked car in the 2600 block of 112th Ave. N.E. of Bellevue.

She told police that her car ran out of gas and walked to get help with the boy’s 4-year-old sister Maile. Police stated that the car had gas and found no mechanical issues.

Biryukova claims that she was taking Sky to Overlake Hospital in Bellevue because the boy was sick. Bellevue police said that Biryukova has been cooperative but that they have not spoken face-to-face with her since the night of the disappearance.

Biryukova and Solomon Metalwala were in a bitter custody battle prior to the Sky’s disappearance.

Solomon and Terry have stated that they have doubts about the date Sky actually went missing.

“It is unfortunate that we have to use Nov. 6, 2011 as the missing date, but that is all we have since Ms. Biryukova will not step forward and tell the truth about what happened to young Sky,” said Terry.

Neither Terry, nor Solomon, have had any contact with Biryukova since the disappearance and she has still not spoken to police, according to Terry.

“Her brother, who was the one that named Sky and was his favorite uncle, has done absolutely nothing publicly except one statement in early November, in which he said his sister was devastated by the kidnapping,” said Terry. “… The whole family, and the few close friends Julia had, have been deadly silent in any effort to find Sky … These are the same people who leaped gladly to assist Julia with written denunciations of Solomon when the shared custody request of Solomon was denied.”

The community is frustrated with Biryukova's silence as well.

Desiree Clifton of Ellensburg, Wash., created an online petition posted at change.org to have the Bellevue prosecuting attorney arrest Biryukova. The petition had 135 signatures as of Friday afternoon.

The petition letter states: “Julia is directly linked to the disappearance of Sky and she is withholding critical information that can lead us to him … Arrest her and she will talk!!”

Terry’s law firm sent out 360 letters to local doctors asking if they had treated Sky, who was sick according to Biryukova, and none have seen the boy or his sister during 2011.

Maile Metalwala was taken from her mother after the incident and placed in foster care. She has since been reunited with her father and has also started school.

There have been several searches organized by Solomon, friends, family and Terry’s firm in the Puget Sound area and along the I-5 corridor during the past few months.

Police have also conducted searches of many local parks and other sites of interest. Terry said that he and Solomon have given 125 media interviews, nine of which were national.

“We want … to thank this community, the media, law enforcement, and the multiple and wonderful volunteers who have come from all walks of life to help us search for Sky,” said Terry.

Volunteers posted 3,500 posters during a period of one month in Bellevue, Redmond, Issaquah and Kirkland. Using the assistance of Search and Seek, the group has been able to put up 2,000 posters on I-5 from Seattle to Gresham, Ore.

Anyone with information on the case is urged to call the Bellevue Police tip line at 425-577-5656 or email pdtipline@bellevuewa.gov

http://www.kirklandreporter.com/news/139131834.html

SEATTLE - Four months after she reported that her little boy had
vanished from his car seat, the mother of missing toddler Sky Metalwala
once again failed to show up for a court hearing over custody of her
children.

And now the judge in the case has set a March 30
deadline for Julia Biryukova to submit a parenting plan, or else the
boy's father, Solomon Metalwala, will likely be granted full custody of
Sky - if he's ever found - along with the boy's 5-year-old sister Maile.

It
was the latest development in the strange case that first unfolded in
November, when Biryukova reported that someone had taken Sky when she
left him in the car alongside the road and walked to get gas.

Bellevue
police have questioned the mother's story from day one, after
discovering that her car hadn't actually run out of gas, as she claimed.
Ever since then, she and the boy's father had been embroiled in a
months-long custody battle, with allegations of abuse flying back and
forth.

Now Metalwala says he is afraid that if his ex-wife sees
or even talks to their daughter Maile, it could set back any chance that
the little girl will ever remember or feel safe enough to talk about
what happened to her baby brother.

"The way that Julia had treated her, I think just her presence will do the trick," Metalwala said.

"Remember, our concern is that Maile is a witness in this case," added Metalwala's attorney, Clay Terry.

The
boy's father also said he still believes little Sky is alive somewhere.
He has said it's even possible that Sky actually vanished months before
Biryukova reported him missing, and now he wonders whether the little
boy's uncle took him to the Ukraine after a visit to Washington state in
April 2011.

In the meantime, Terry said, he has confirmed that
Biryukova is still living in the Puget Sound area - but he doesn't know
exactly where.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Missing-boys-mom-a-no-show-for-custody-hearing-142094943.html

March 20, 2012

Two-year-old Sky Metalwala has been missing
for 134 days now, and even though there are no leads in his
disappearance, a judge has decided to give full custody of the boy and
his 5-year-old sister to the children’s father, Solomon Metalwala.

Bellevue
police have said the kids’ mother, Julia Biryukova, has refused to talk
to them directly about Sky’s disappearance. She originally told them
Sky disappeared from his car seat when she and her daughter left him in
her car when she ran out of gas in November.

“I think she’s a big threat to me and my family,” Solomon said of the mother of his children.

Solomon’s attorney, Clay Terry, said the judge in the case has good reason to keep Biryukova away from her daughter.

“There’s
only two witnesses: The 5-year-old daughter and the mother. They’re the
only two witnesses in this case to what may have happened to Sky,”
Terry said. “There will be no visitation with the 5-year-old daughter by
the mother until the daughter is cleared by police as no longer being a
witness in this case.”

Terry also said that on the day
Biryukova reported Sky missing, she gave up looking and fighting for
custody in her divorce with Solomon.

“If it was as simple
as the fact that she left the child in the car and the child was taken
by a stranger, you’d think the first person in line would be the mother
in efforts to try and find the child,” Terry said. “But in this case,
for the last 134 days, it’s been the father.”
Solomon said he was still confident his son will turn up.
“We’re gonna find him,” Solomon said.
http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/crime-law/solomon-metalwala-granted-full-custody-kids/nLYYY/

March 23, 2012
Solomon Metalwala and Julia Biryukova, the parents of missing 2-year-old Sky signed a divorce agreement on Monday.

Metawala was given custody of the boy’s 5-year-old sister, and Biryukova was allowed no visitation rights.

The agreement stipulates that Metawala will pay the couple’s credit
card debt of $47,000, but there will be no child support payments from
either side.

Biryukova reported on Nov. 6 that 2-year-old Sky disappeared after
she ran out of gas in Bellevue. A massive search failed to turn up any
sign of him.
http://www.bellevuereporter.com/news/143992006.html

Sunday marks the six-month anniversary of Sky Metalwala's disappearance.

The 2-year-old vanished from Bellevue last November when
his mother, Julia Biryukova, says she left him alone in her car
while she walked to get gas. Police later determined there
were about two gallons of gas still left in the car.

The boy's father, Solomon Metalwala, is still holding on to hope that he's alive.

"He very strongly believes his son is alive. I think, to
tell you the truth, it's keeping him going," Solomon's
attorney, Clay Terry, told 97.3 KIRO FM's Ron and Don Show.

There will be a prayer service for Sky Sunday night (8-9pm) at
Heritage park in Kirkland.

Meanwhile, the Bellevue Police Department said Thursday
that the Metalwala case is still a "very active open missing child case."

"We all hope for his safe return," Police Spokeswoman Carla Iafrate said via email.

Solomon Metalwala and Julia Biryukova have divorced and
Solomon has full custody of Sky's 5-year-old sister,
Mailie. Terry said Mailie is thriving in her new
environment. She's in school, she's eating well, and counselors continue to work with her.

"We're hoping like Elizabeth Smart's younger sister...where
they start to remember things and draw pictures. They're
kind of hoping that this will happen with Mailie, but it
has not happened yet," said Terry.

Meanwhile, Biryukova remains mum about the case. In fact,
she failed to appear at a March custody hearing.

"She hasn't been to any of the court appearances, she
won't answer any questions, she won't talk to police, she
won't talk to any of the investigators with any of the
agencies that have been involved."

Terry said Biryukova has not fled the country and she
remains in Redmond. Police have assured him that they
can't find any evidence Sky was taken to the Ukraine.

http://mynorthwest.com/108/671650/Father-of-missing-Sky-Metalwala-is-hopeful-six-months-later