BELLEVUE, Wash. — Police in Washington state said Tuesday they suspect a crime in the disappearance of a 2-year-old boy whose mother claimed he disappeared when she left him alone in a car for an hour last weekend.
"Given the limited amount of information we have, the fact that there's really no solid leads to follow up on in regard to where he might be — absolutely, we suspect foul play," Bellevue Police Maj. Mike Johnson told KING-TV.
Authorities haven't said whether they believe the boy has been harmed, and Johnson did not immediately return a call or email from The Associated Press.
The child's mother, Julie Biryukova, reported that her car ran out of gas Sunday morning in Bellevue, a city of 122,000 across Lake Washington from Seattle. She told investigators she left Sky in the unlocked vehicle and walked with her 4-year-old daughter about a mile to a gas station. When she returned to the car, Sky was gone, she said.
Investigators searched a 20-block area and even went door-to-door but found no sign of the toddler. There was no gas can at the car, which started easily, police said.
Bellevue police said Monday that both parents were cooperating, and Biryukova had consented to have her vehicle and home in nearby Redmond searched. The older child was placed in protective custody.
The toddler's disappearance comes during a custody fight between Biryukova and the children's father, Solomon Metalwala. After being together for 14 years, the couple separated in March 2010 amid back-and-forth protective orders and allegations of abuse and mental problems.
At a mandatory mediation session last week, the parties hammered out a tentative agreement that would allow Metalwala to have some visitation with Sky and his older sister, said his lawyer, Leslie Clay Terry III.
Biryukova and her lawyer didn't immediately return calls seeking comment. But her younger brother, Stanley Biryukova, said Julia was crying frantically when she called him Sunday and explained what happened.
"I'm hoping they'll find the child," he said.
Metalwala spoke with reporters Monday at his lawyer's office. They said his estranged wife's story was bizarre: Why didn't she call for help, knock on a nearby door, or take the child with her?
"I don't understand why she would leave a little baby in the car," Metalwala said. "The whole story is puzzling."
Several TV stations reported Metalwala took a polygraph test Monday evening. Terry told KING-TV the outcome was inconclusive. He said his client was too tired to give an accurate result and would take another test later.
If Sky was in fact left in the car, it wouldn't be the first time.
When he was 3 months old, his parents left him in their sport utility vehicle in a Target parking lot for 55 minutes on a 27-degree day, court records showed. They came out of the store to get him only after police arrived and asked for the vehicle's owner to be paged.
Redmond police cited both parents for reckless endangerment in the December 2009 incident.
The case was dismissed early this year after the pair completed a year of probation, 40 hours of community service and a 10-week parenting class.
In court documents filed in their divorce, Julia Biryukova said their relationship deteriorated in 2008 after they bought an expensive home in Kirkland and couldn't keep up with the payments on that property and a condominium they owned.
Metalwala filed for divorce in June 2010. The same month, Biryukova, 30, filed for a protection order on behalf of herself and their two children.
She said Metalwala, 36, had an anger problem and was verbally and physically abuse, beating her for the first team just weeks after the Target incident. She said the abuse escalated, with Metalwala telling her to go live on the street and work as a prostitute, she said.
Last December, a social worker determined there was a "preponderance of evidence" that Metalwala had struck his daughter hard enough to cause bruising, court records show.
The social worker also said Sky had troubling bruises but that it wasn't clear where he got them.
Terry said Monday the case worker had only interviewed the mother and that state Child Protective Services later conducted an investigation that cleared Metalwala.
"He was exonerated completely," Terry said. "The accusations against him were totally false."
Metalwala responded that Biryukova had mental health problems and was involuntarily committed to a mental clinic in 2010.
A psychologist who evaluated Biryukova wrote in July 2010 that she was dealing with a "severe form" of obsessive compulsive disorder. But the psychologist determined Biryukova's condition did not interfere with "her ability to be a compassionate, effective parent to her children."
Earlier this year a social worker reported that a doctor found Biryukova to be in good mental health and an appropriate caregiver for the kids.
Johnson and Le reported from Seattle. Associated Press writer Donna Gordon Blankinship contributed to this report.