BELLEVUE, Wash. — Ten years have passed and there are still no answers about the disappearance of 2-year-old Sky Metalwala.
"It is a big burden and a heartache," said Solomon Metalwala on Tuesday, recalling that day, a decade ago when his two-year-old son vanished.
His ex-wife Julia Biryukova told police that her car ran out of gas on the side of a Bellevue road, and that she walked with her daughter to a gas station a mile away to get help, and left 2-year-old Sky behind in the car.
The Bellevue Police Department (BPD) would later say the story was not accurate, and the car had gas. Biryukova has not talked to detectives since that day. She and Solomon had been going through a bitter custody battle at the time.
"We have asked Julia to come forward and talk to us, provide us with any information that she has. She has not cooperated with us," said BPD Major Debbie Christofferson on Tuesday.
BPD released an age-enhanced sketch of Sky to commemorate the 10-year mark of his disappearance and said it's still waiting for a key piece of evidence to crack the case.
"We have spent over $2 million on this case. We have investigated over 2,500 tips, and we have spent over 14,000 hours on this," she said.
Biryukova has continued to live in the area, remarrying, later fighting over custody of another child with another ex-husband. She declined to talk, when approached by a reporter in 2019, and has successfully hidden from public view since the story got national attention.
On Tuesday, she was due back in a courtroom, this time accused by Redmond Police of third-degree theft and stealing clothes from a Costco back in June. She did not appear via a ZOOM call.
Solomon said, despite the lack of a concrete answer and his frustration over time, he still remains hopeful that Sky is still alive.
"There's no evidence that says that he's not," Solomon said. "So I still kind of stand on that and to keep myself going."
He hopes somebody, somewhere, will see the age-progressed photo or that even Sky could think, "You know, there's something a little different about me, I don't really act like my brothers, I don't really look like my brothers and sisters, or my parents. I think that's what I'm really hoping for."
He adds that he's often reflected on that period, and the days leading up to the disappearance, and says now, "Really, spend time with your kids. Time is too short. You never know when will be the last day that you will see your loved ones."