November 27th, 2011 by Robert Franklin, Esq.
As the search for two-year-old Sky Metalwala continues, more information is coming out about the mental state of his mother, Julia Biryukova. Here’s one article (King 5, 11/21/11). And here’s another (Examiner, 11/22/11).
Sky has been missing since November 6th. At this point, police have no leads in the case, but are still attempting to find the boy. His father, Solomon Metalwala is trying to recruit as many people as possible to the task of locating the child. But so far, there is no evidence of where he is or whether he is alive.
No one has been charged with a crime and the police are still treating the case as one of a missing person.
But the story Julia Biryukova told police is plainly false. She claimed she was driving to the hospital with Sky and his older sister Maile, 4, when her car ran out of gas. She walked to a Chevron station about a mile away. But she bought no gas and, when the police arrived at the scene, they found no evidence that the car had been broken into. When they tested the car, it started without difficulty. Police found no mechanical problems with the automobile.
So where is Sky Metalwala, and is he well? It is all but impossible that he was kidnapped by persons unknown. How did they get into a locked car and abduct a child while leaving no evidence of having done so?
Clearly, there is one person who knows what became of Sky – his mother, Julia Biryukova. That’s because she had gotten a restraining order against Solomon Metalwala prohibiting him from having any contact with his children. She got that order in March of this year, so Metalwala had no contact with them from then until Sky’s disappearance on November 6th.
If he had no contact with the children and Sky wasn’t kidnapped from the car, realistically, there’s only one suspect – Julia Biryukova. That conclusion is strongly reinforced by the behavior of Sky’s two parents since November 6th. Metalwala has bent heaven and earth trying to locate his son. He’s cooperated with the police, including taking and passing a lie-detector test. By contrast, Biryukova has refused to take a polygraph test and seems to have done nothing to attempt to find her son.
It’s that second fact that strongly suggests she knows exactly what happened to the child. After all, why go looking for a child whose whereabouts you already know?
In a desperate attempt to paint Metalwala as the bad guy in all this, Biryukova emailed an ABC reporter that her ex is a “sadistic Muslim Pakistani.” She of course knows that to be false. Metalwala is a Christian and the two of them attended church together. So the “Muslim” claim looks to be an attempt to recruit American anti-Muslim feelings post 9/11/01 to the cause of smearing Sky’s father.
Some of Biryukova’s medical records have been examined by media outlets in the Seattle area and have been received by Fathers and Families. Because of suicidal ideation, she was taken by the police to an area mental hospital involuntarily for assessment. Chillingly, her assessment on admission shows that she scored 15 out of a possible 100 on the General Assessment of Functioning. That means that she was considered a danger to herself and/or others.
Various psychiatrists diagnosed her with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder and one with bi-polar disorder. One mental health professional was troubled by the fact that Biryukova was in denial regarding her diagnoses.
Eventually, she was placed on psychotropic medication and released. By that time, Metalwala had temporary custody of his two children. Within three months of her release from the hospital, Biryukova was claiming to the family court that Metalwala was physically and sexually abusive of both children. She had never previously made such a claim during the course of the children’s lives. The only evidence of abuse came from minor bruising to Maile that apparently had occurred during her time with her mother.
Still, in February of this year, the family court gave sole custody to Biryukova, who a mere 10 months before had been diagnosed with severe mental disorders that made her a danger to herself and others. Metalwala was prohibited from all contact with his children.
That of course brings us to the present in which, while in his mother’s “care,” Sky Metalwala mysteriously vanished – if he did. My guess is that he was never in the car that day. I believe he was placed by Biryukova in the hands of a co-conspirator who has him to this day. If not that, then the boy is dead.
But whatever has actually happened to Sky Metalwala, the case once again demonstrates the terrible consequences of the anti-father bias of family courts. Face it, the chances of a father who’s been diagnosed with severe mental disorders that render him a danger to himself and others being given sole custody of his children over the claims of a fit mother are essentially nil. Likewise, the chances of a father’s using unproven claims of physical and sexual abuse for the first time in a divorce case to deprive a fit mother of all contact with her children are all but nonexistent.
But both of those things happened in this case, and with possibly tragic consequences. They happened for one reason only – Biryukova is a mother and Metalwala is a father.
If Sky Metalwala is dead, or harmed in any way – and we all devoutly hope he’s not – there is a judge in Seattle, Washington who bears a heavy load of responsibility for it. If Sky is injured, dead or abducted, Commissioner Jacqueline Jeske should be made to answer for the fact that she ignored such obvious signs of danger in rendering her custody order.
Thanks to our area supporters who got us the court records.