Dad broadens search for missing 2-year-old from Bellevue

SEATTLE – The father of missing Bellevue boy Sky Metalwala is expanding the search for his 2-year-old son up and down the state of Washington.

Groups of volunteers began driving in all directions across Washington Wednesday, making repeated stops to hand out fliers along the way.

Sky’s father, Solomon Metalwala, joined a group in Lacey at 10 a.m. and began heading to Seattle. Other groups were going from Lacey to Vader, Woodland to Gresham, Ore., and from Seattle to the Canadian border.

“With the holiday season, everyone’s out shopping, everybody’s running to get their last-minute things and the one thing they all have to stop for is gas,” said Jennifer Mau, a volunteer with the group Search and Speak. “So if we can hit the gas stations, they can be looking at Sky’s picture.”

“I’m still hopeful that he’s out there and we will find him,” Metalwala said.

He said he continues to believe his ex-wife and Sky’s mother, Julia Biryukova, knows what happened to Sky.

Sky has not been seen since Nov. 6 when Biryukova said she left him in her car along a Bellevue road while she walked to get gas. Biryukova said Sky was gone when she returned.

Police have questioned her story and she has refused to talk to them.

The investigation into Sky’s disappearance has yielded few leads, but Metalwala believes one piece of information could bring his son home.

“We may find one person, just one, who knows something, so we are going out as far as our resources will allow us,” said Metalwala’s lawyer, Clay Terry.