December 5th, 2012 by Robert Franklin, Esq.
It’s been just over a year since two-year-old Sky Metalwala went missing. In the middle of his parents’ divorce, Sky vanished while in his mother’s care. Julia Biryukova has always claimed that he and his older sister Maile were in the car with her when she ran out of gas. Incredibly, she claims she took Maile to walk to a service station, leaving the baby alone in the car. When she and Maile returned, she says, Sky was gone.
Not a soul on the planet believes Biryukova’s story. The Bellevue, Washington police say the car had gas in the tank and was in good running order, and the car was locked and there was no sign of a break-in. In short, Julia Biryukova did something with Sky, but no one knows what. She’s not talking to police and, if there are any new leads as to Sky’s whereabouts, no one’s talking about them. To my mind, there are two possibilities. The first, and most likely is that Biryukova has a co-conspirator. My guess is that their plan was for Biryukova and Maile to leave the car and walk to the gas station while the second person picked up Sky and took him to parts unknown. Biryukova has relatives in Russia, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find that he was there.
The second possibility is that she murdered the boy and disposed of his body. Just when or how she might have done that, I have no idea, and Maile told police that Sky was in the car that day. Of course she may have been coached by Biryukova to say that, but she’s now been a year with her father and apparently has said nothing to contradict what she said before.
Whatever the case, Sky is still missing, the police are still searching, Biryukova is still not talking and Solomon is caring for Maile alone. This article tells us that he still hopes to see his son again, still anguishes over his loss (Redmond Reporter, 11/16/12).
Solomon said that he has faith in the police and in God that Sky will be found.
“God is the only one who can make some light in this dark situation,” he said.
Fortunately, he has help.
People have supported Solomon in person and by writing messages on the Bring Sky Metalwala Home Facebook page.
“Solomon, I know this has been the most difficult year you have ever had to go through. We want you to know that you are not alone, you and Sky are always in our thoughts and prayers,” reads one entry.
Another entry reads: “Sky not a day goes by that we don’t think of you! Praying that you will be brought home safe and unharmed.”
Meanwhile, this article tells us that Julia Biryukova is living off the largess of the taxpayers of Washington State (My Northwest.com, 11/20/12).
Taxpayers are supporting the mother of a toddler who mysteriously disappeared in Bellevue over a year ago…
Meanwhile, Biryukova has qualified for housing assistance according to a tip to The Ron and Don Show which I’ve verified. She’s receiving free rent at a high end, secure apartment building in Redmond.
To sum up, Julia Biryukova either murdered or conspired in the kidnapping of Sky. She did that to keep Solomon from getting custody, which her own dishonest (she lied to the court in the custody process) and erratic behavior (she spent time in a mental institution) made likely. Her behavior has been so bad that she now has custody of neither of her children. She doesn’t have a job and pays no child support for Maile. And, having refused to cooperate with the police, she’s convinced the state to pay her way into a “high end, secure apartment.”
Biryukova Got Custody Despite Mental Health Problems that Now Give Her State Benefits
How’d she manage that? My guess is that she played the mental health card. As I said, she spent time in a mental facility back in June of 2010. At one point, she was assessed as unable to deal with even the basics of daily life. Amazingly, after she got out, all that was forgotten by the court and she was awarded custody of the two children. Then she got rid of Sky and, too late, the court realized what impartial observers had known for a long time – that Julia Biryukova is a dangerous and unfit parent.
So my guess is that Biryukova used that previous mental health referral to convince state officials that she needs financial assistance. Count on it, somewhere there’s a psychologist’s opinion that Biryukova’s emotionally incapable of holding a job. In that way, my guess is that she receives some form of disability-related monthly income, plus her free apartment. The final indignity? I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that she used the “emotional truama” of Sky’s “disappearance” to get those taxpayer benefits.
All that makes Solomon’s lawyer, Clay Terry, just a tad unhappy (as it does me).
“Julia just doesn’t want to work. I’m convinced of that. I was convinced of it when I was representing Mr. Metalwala. All she counted on was wanting more child support, more personal maintenance,” Terry says.
“She did not want to do any work on her own, claiming that she had to take care of the children. That may have been a very legitimate reason, because that is a full-time job, but when she got out of the responsibility of taking care of the children, suddenly she’s incapable of working and taxpayers have to support her.”
And guess what. Biryukova’s still lying.
As recently as November 1, 2012 Biryukova lists “child support” as her only income, in documents I’ve obtained.
Solomon Metalwala has custody of the couple’s daughter Maile, and he has not paid child support since November of 2011.
She did not pay income taxes for 2011 and signed a statement (dated 11-01-2012) that she is not employed.
As Terry points out, that’s far from the only money Julia Biryukova has cost Washington taxpayers. He figures the police investigation alone runs to over $1 million.
“That story about the child being kidnapped is a phony, it’s a fake, it never existed, it never happened, it’s an outright lie,” says Terry. “Everyone connected with this case as far as I know believes it’s a lie, even though they’ve had to spend thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars investigating it because of the remote possibility that it might have been true.”
“We know in our hearts, Solomon and I know in our hearts, that Julia knows exactly what happened to Sky, but because she won’t say anything enormous amounts of money are going into efforts to try to find the child or to look for some clues. I’m sure it’s into the millions of dollars by now.”
It all reminds one of Elizabeth Johnson of Arizona. She’s the one who absconded with her 9-month-old son because she was afraid the boy’s father, Logan McQueary, might get custody of him. Johnson fled to Texas where she told McQueary that she’d murdered the infant, stuffed his body in a plastic bag and tossed him in a dumpster. She later claimed she’d given him to a couple in a park in San Antonio. Whatever the case, she spent a couple of years in jail awaiting trial and was then released, having been sentenced to time already served. Now she’s free.
Biryukova was smarter than Johnson. She got rid of a child and managed to get the state to pay her living expenses into the bargain. She’s charged with nothing, has paid no price. The same system that takes children from parents for letting them play outside unsupervised gives a pass to Julia Biryukova.