Disappearance of Sky Metalwala

On the morning of November 6, 2011, Sky Elijah Metalwala, then two years old, disappeared in Bellevue, Washington. According to his mother, Julia Biryukova, she was driving Sky and his older sister, Maile, to Overlake Medical Center because Sky was sick when her 1998 Acura Integra ran out of gas along 112th Avenue N.E. She said she left Sky strapped in his car seat while she took Maile to seek help, eventually reaching a Chevron station about a mile away roughly an hour later. When she returned to the car with a friend's help, she said Sky was gone. She called police, who notified Sky's father, Solomon Metalwala, before noon that day.

Investigators quickly found problems with Biryukova's account. Her car was tested and found to have adequate fuel and to be in working order. She had left home without her wallet, purse, or phone despite the claimed medical emergency, and no gas can was found in the vehicle. She made little apparent effort to seek roadside help from residents during the hour she was away. When questioned, Biryukova invoked her Fifth Amendment rights and declined a polygraph, though she permitted searches of her car, computer, and home. Searches of a 20-block radius, and of both parents' residences, turned up no trace of Sky.

Police also noted that Biryukova's account closely resembled a Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode, "Missing Pieces," which had been rerun in the Seattle area the night before Sky disappeared; in the episode a couple falsely claims their son was abducted from a stolen car after accidentally causing his death. A Bellevue police official called the similarity "strikingly similar in nature." Solomon Metalwala's attorney told People magazine that Law & Order was Biryukova's favorite show. Investigators stated they did not believe her account and suspected criminal activity, but made a "strategic decision" not to charge her with child endangerment, in part to preserve the possibility of more serious charges later and to prevent her attorney from gaining early access to case evidence.

The disappearance occurred amid an acrimonious divorce and custody dispute between Biryukova and Solomon Metalwala; Biryukova had withdrawn from a signed mediation agreement just days before Sky vanished. In the aftermath, the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services removed Maile from Biryukova's custody, and Solomon was later awarded custody after the divorce was finalized in January 2012. On the case's anniversaries in 2015 and 2021, Bellevue police publicly appealed to Biryukova to share information, releasing age-progressed images of Sky and stating they believed she knew what happened to him. As of the most recent police statements referenced, more than $2.5 million had been spent investigating roughly 2,500 tips, and Sky has not been located. No one has been charged in connection with his disappearance.