Unsolved Disappearance: The Case of Sky Elijah Metalwala

Images courtesy of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Information courtesy of The Charley Project.

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Disclaimer: This blog post is for informational and entertainment purposes only, and it is not meant to cause harm to anyone connected with the case. Please do not contact, threaten, harm, malign, or otherwise intimidate those mentioned in the post. Please do not release any personal information of the people mentioned in this post, and do not join in attacks conducted by others. Per U.S. law, every person directly or indirectly connected with this case is innocent until proven guilty.

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ABOUT SKY

Sky Elijah Metalwala was born on September 6, 2009, to his parents, Julia Biryukova and Solomon Metalwala. He was the youngest of two children, having an older sister named Maile.

Both of Sky’s parents immigrated to the U.S. before he and his sister were born. Julia was born in Russia and came to the United States as a teenager. In 1997, when she was 15 years old, she met a then 21-year-old Solomon.

At first, their relationship seemed to run smoothly. Julia worked at Solomon’s family business, and once she graduated high school, the couple purchased a condo and moved in together. They also enjoyed several hobbies, such as working out, watching movies, cooking, and spending time with friends.

However, things seemed to worsen in 2003, when the nature of their relationship changed. For unknown reasons, Solomon was facing deportation back to his native Pakistan. According to court documents, Solomon’s mother gave Julia an ultimatum: either marry Solomon or never see him again. Rather than risk losing him, she opted to marry him.

Soon, their relationship would intensify. According to later court documents, Julia told a clinical psychologist that Solomon was

very controlling, declared himself to be a Christ-like figure who had great persuasive skills due to his charisma.

As a result,

An emotional abuse pattern insidiously set in whereby Julia gradually became dependent upon Solomon for her very identity and self esteem.

The Bellevue Reporter

Two years into their marriage, the couple began to experience financial troubles. Solomon’s family’s business, which had once been prosperous, was struggling after a competitor moved in next door. The business took an even bigger hit during the Great Recession in 2008. Despite their worsening financial status, the couple purchased an $800,000 home that year, meaning they had two mortgage payments to make.

The following year, Sky was born, and the family’s problems seemed to intensify yet again, with their financial issues reaching their peak. Julia stated that she learned she and Solomon were

six months behind on paying [their] two mortgages, utilities, credit cards and all other bills…This is the time when [Solomon]’s anger and his true character began to show.

Kirkland Reporter

Meanwhile, Julia’s mental health began to decline. She began seeing a psychiatrist during her pregnancy with Sky, who placed her on antidepressants. While she didn’t think they were necessary, others viewed the situation differently. She was later diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and the family was forced to take drastic action to keep her conditions in check. These included the entire family eating outside and Solomon sleeping on the floor of the living room or in his car.

When speaking of his now ex-wife’s conditions, Solomon stated:

I am not exaggerating when I state under oath that Julia cared more about cleaning a countertop than she did about feeding our daughter…the child was ignored, and it became a matter of great concern.

Solomon Metalwala, speaking to the Kirkland Reporter

After their home was foreclosed, the family moved back to the condo, and Julia’s mental health deteriorated even more. By March of 2010:

• The couple received at least three noise complaint citations from their landlord after she vacuumed their condo after 11 PM.
• she struggled to leave the home.
• she had dreams about strangling Sky.
• she was committed to a mental health facility three times, twice involuntarily.

The situation reached its breaking point when she sent Solomon suicidal threats via text. In response, he called the police because she was home alone with a then 6-month-old Sky.

Meanwhile, Solomon and Julia’s marriage eroded, and both made abuse allegations against each other. She accused him of domestic violence, as well as physical and sexual abuse. From 2009 to 2010, Child Protective Services was called on six different occasions. Some of these claims were unfounded, but others were substantiated. For example,

• the couple was cited for reckless endangerment in December 2009, after leaving a three-month-old Sky unattended in a vehicle when it was 27 degrees outside. Rather than losing custody of their son, they took parenting classes, did community service, and spent a year on probation.
• Julia admitted to leaving both children unsupervised for hours at a time, notably for 11 hours shortly before he disappeared.

Two weeks before Sky’s disappearance, an 11-hour mediation session took place, which resulted in Julia getting full custody of both children and full visitation rights for Solomon, but Julia later attempted to back out of the deal. This was a change from an earlier mediation, as Solomon did not have any visitation rights. Investigators reportedly know whether or not Julia left the kids alone during the mediation, but they have never revealed this information publicly.

DISAPPEARANCE

Julia claimed that on November 6, 2011, Sky woke up sick, so she loaded both kids in the car and proceeded to drive towards the Overlake Medical Center. Partway through her trip, her car ran out of gas and stalled.

In an attempt to get help, Julia took Maile with her and walked a mile to a nearby gas station, leaving Sky fast asleep in the unlocked car. Once she arrived at the gas station, she reportedly didn’t buy gas. Instead, she called a friend who drove her and Maile back to the car. Upon returning an hour later, Sky had vanished, and Julia called the police.

Investigators immediately searched the area, but other than a toddler shoe, they found nothing. It was later determined that the shoe was unrelated to the case.

Interestingly, investigators didn’t find a gas can. The car had plenty of gas and was in working condition. Due to these discrepancies, investigators began to zero in on Julia. However, her story didn’t add up, and when she was pressed for more details, she went silent, other than a few comments to the media early on.

Despite a lack of cooperation from Julia, authorities continued to search for Sky. Some began to wonder whether Sky was in the car at all that day, considering that Julia and the children rarely left the apartment and no one other than Julia saw him in the two weeks leading up to his disappearance. Solomon last saw him at an April 2011 doctor’s appointment. However, Maile confirmed in an interview with investigators that Sky was in the car that day.

After Sky disappeared, Maile was taken into CPS custody and placed in a foster home. Later on, Solomon gained custody.

Meanwhile, following their divorce, Julia met and married a man named Alan J. Morgan. From the beginning, their relationship was a tumultuous one. There were multiple domestic violence incidents, to the point where she took out a no-contact order against him. Despite this order, he called her from jail repeatedly.

In 2015, Julia gave birth to her third child, a boy, with Alan. Following the baby’s birth, the person who delivered the baby (who has not been identified) was concerned about the baby’s wellbeing due to Julia’s mental health. CPS was contacted, and they shared the same concerns. The agency ended up taking steps to take the baby into their custody, but I was unable to find out if they ever gained custody.

Sky Metalwala has not been seen since November 6, 2011, although he might have disappeared before then. His case remains unsolved.

My Thoughts

The disappearance of Sky Metalwala is tragic and suspicious, to say the least. With many cold case disappearances, it’s hard to know where to begin because the information and evidence simply aren’t there. In Sky’s case, we have a general idea of what happened, but important questions have gone unanswered since November 6, 2011. For example:

• What was the motive behind Sky’s disappearance? Considering he was only two years old, it’s hard to imagine he would’ve made any enemies.
• Is Sky still alive after all these years? Or does someone know more than they’ve shared?

In this case, the question isn’t so much “Who’s responsible for Sky’s disappearance?” It’s “What was their motive for causing Sky to disappear?” I believe that if we can figure out the motive, that will point us in Sky’s direction.

With that, we have two main theories:

1. Julia’s original story was correct, and Sky was abducted from their unlocked car when she and Maile walked to the gas station.
2. Julia was responsible for her son’s disappearance, and she lied to investigators to cover up the truth.

Let’s analyze these theories one by one.

For starters, we have the story that Julia told investigators early on. She was trying to drive Sky to the hospital when her car broke down. Rather than calling a tow truck or taking both children with her, she chose to leave her son asleep in the unlocked car while she and Maile walked to the gas station. Once she arrived at the gas station, she called a friend to drive her back to her car and never purchased gas. Interestingly, the authorities later determined that the car had plenty of gas and was drivable. It hadn’t run out of gas.

Frankly, all this story does is lead to more questions. For example, why would you leave a sick two-year-old in an unlocked car of all places? If Sky was sick enough to go to the hospital, that probably meant that his health was bad and getting worse, which would require constant supervision and care. But if that was the case, why didn’t she call an ambulance instead?

Even if she wanted to drive, why would you walk to the gas station with one child, instead of both? If the children were older, then this might make sense. But Sky was only two years old. Two-year-olds can easily get into dangerous situations if left unsupervised, even if they’re sick.

But let’s say for argument’s sake that someone did take Sky. What would be their motive? There are a few possibilities, but they’re far-fetched at best:

• If it was a good samaritan looking out for an abandoned child, you would think they would call the police, not take the child and hide them.
• It could’ve been someone who took him to raise as their own, but you would think they would start feeling the pressure once the case was thrust into the spotlight.
• Even if someone with bad intentions took him, what are the odds that a criminal would happen to come across an abandoned child? Remember, this was in broad daylight with plenty of cars and pedestrians. The odds of someone not seeing something is slim.

Of course, this is assuming that the story is even true, which is debatable at best. For many, there’s only one person who could’ve been responsible: Julia Biryukova.

That leads us to our final theory, that Julia was responsible for Sky’s disappearance. At first glance, this is the theory that makes the most sense. She was struggling with her mental health, to the point that she had to be committed, and she also admitted to having dreams about strangling Sky. In addition, both she and Solomon were the center of multiple CPS investigations, specifically after they left 3-month-old Sky alone in a car when it was below freezing. With all of this information put together, it paints a worrisome picture.

However, I feel the need to say this: mental health conditions alone do not make someone a bad parent. I know several people who have Bipolar Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, ADHD, and a multitude of other conditions. All of them are productive members of society. They hold down full-time jobs, have healthy marriages, and are wonderful, engaged parents. I firmly believe that people with mental health conditions can be good parents, but they need to do the work to heal so they don’t pass their pain along to their children.

With all of that being said, the fact that Julia was involuntarily committed, expressed suicidal ideation, and had dreams of killing Sky is setting off major alarm bells for me. It would be easy to sit here and say that she was responsible. The only problem is that we don’t have any proof. There’s no evidence that she killed him in the home (at least, not that the authorities have disclosed), and there’s no evidence that she or Solomon shipped Sky out of the country like some people believe. 

That’s what makes this case so frustrating. We have some information, but we’re missing so much that we can only speculate about what happened.

Unfortunately, unless witnesses come forward, new evidence emerges, or someone confesses, this case will continue to grow cold. It’s a shame because at the heart of this mystery is a young boy who didn’t get a chance to live his life. He didn’t get to go to school, make new friends, fall in love, get a driver’s license, or any other milestones. He never got a chance to do any of this because someone took those opportunities away from him.

Honestly, I think it’s going to take the right person coming forward to solve this case, whether it was a witness or the perpetrator. With more information, we can solve this case and give Sky the justice he deserves.

***

If you’re looking for more information about the disappearance of Sky Metalwala, there are articles, podcasts, and YouTube videos that cover his case. The following sources helped me as I wrote this post:

• The Bellevue Reporter
• Kirkland Reporter
• The Seattle Weekly
• The Charley Project
• The Seattle Times
• KIRO 7 News
• The Redmond Reporter
• ABC News

If you have any information about the disappearance of Sky Metalwala, please contact the Bellevue Police Department at 1-425-577-5656. You can also submit a tip online to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children here or call their 24-hour hotline at 1-800-843-5678.

What do you think happened? Let me know in the comments.