On 6 November, 2011, two-year-old Sky Metalwala disappeared from Bellevue, Washington. His mother, Julia Biryukova, claimed she ran out of gas and left Sky strapped in his car seat while she walked a mile to a gas station with his older sister. When she returned after about an hour and a half, Sky was gone.

 On 6 November, 2011, two-year-old Sky Metalwala disappeared from Bellevue, Washington. His mother, Julia Biryukova, claimed she ran out of gas and left Sky strapped in his car seat while she walked a mile to a gas station with his older sister. When she returned after about an hour and a half, Sky was gone.

Police quickly found discrepancies in her story. The car had enough fuel in its tank and started normally. Biryukova had left home with a supposedly sick child but hadn't taken her wallet, purse, or phone. No gas can was found in the car. Disturbingly, investigators discovered the last independently confirmed sighting of Sky was at a doctor's appointment in April 2011, seven months earlier. Neighbours hadn't seen him for at least two weeks before he was reported missing.

The night before Sky vanished, a Law and Order SVU episode aired in Seattle about parents who buried their child and faked a kidnapping. The similarities were striking. Biryukova invoked her Fifth Amendment rights and has refused to cooperate with police since that first day. Sky's father, Solomon Metalwala, has been fully cooperative and desperate for answers.

Over 13 years later, more than 2,500 tips have been investigated, over $2 million spent, and 14,000 hours logged. Sky Metalwala has never been found. He would be 16 years old today.

In the months following Sky’s disappearance, law enforcement conducted extensive searches across Bellevue and surrounding areas, including wooded regions, bodies of water, landfills, and abandoned properties. Cadaver dogs were deployed multiple times, and search warrants were executed on locations connected to Biryukova. Despite these efforts, no physical evidence—no clothing, remains, or witnesses—has ever been recovered to confirm what happened to Sky.

Investigators have repeatedly stated that Sky’s case is being treated as a homicide investigation, though no charges have been filed due to the absence of a body and insufficient prosecutable evidence. Prosecutors have acknowledged that while suspicion exists, the legal threshold required to bring a case to trial has not been met. Biryukova has never been charged and remains legally free, though she has had no custody of her daughter since 2011.

Sky’s father, Solomon Metalwala, has remained vocal and visible throughout the years, advocating for continued attention to the case. He has participated in media interviews, cooperated fully with investigators, and maintained public pressure to keep Sky’s name from fading. Friends and supporters describe him as a parent living in a permanent state of unresolved grief, suspended between hope and loss.

The case has drawn national and international attention, often cited as one of the most troubling unresolved child disappearances in the United States. True crime documentaries, podcasts, and investigative articles have revisited the case, each highlighting the same unanswered questions and inconsistencies. Yet none have produced new evidence capable of moving the investigation forward.

Today, Sky Metalwala remains listed as a missing child, his face frozen at two years old in age-progression images created by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Authorities continue to state that one tip—one piece of credible information—could still change everything. Until then, Sky exists in a painful limbo: neither found nor forgotten, a child whose absence has become a permanent question mark in the lives of those who loved him.