Missing: Sky Metalwala

I always try to be open-minded when researching and writing articles, but this is more difficult than others. Let’s just say there are cases where it doesn’t take a genius to make a good guess of who is responsible for what happened. The case of Sky Metalwala is a mysterious one, but not in the same way as the previous cases I have featured. This case, in my opinion, is only a mystery because the one person who holds all the answers will not talk.

Sky Metalwala was born September 6, 2009, to Julia and Solomon Metalwala in Bellevue, Washington. His sister, Maile, was born in 2007. Sky had just turned 2 years old at the time of his disappearance and was living in an apartment in Redmond, Washington with his mother and his sister.

The Disappearance

On the day in question, Sky woke up sick and his mother decided to take him to the hospital. This was sometime around 8:30 am. With Maile and Sky both in the car, a silver 1998 two-door Acura Integra, His mother drove in the direction of Overlake Medical Center in Bellevue. At some point on the drive, around the 2600 block of 112th Street N.E., she told authorities she ran out of gas.

Sky’s mother pulled over on the side of the road and got Maile out of the car. Claiming Sky was asleep in the backseat, she walked a mile to a gas station with Maile, leaving Sky alone in the car. She reportedly did not have a gas can with her, nor did she buy one. On arriving at the gas station, she called a friend, as she did not have a cell phone or her purse with her either. She asked the friend to pick her up and drive her back to her car.

It had been about an hour by the time they arrived back at the car. Sky was nowhere to be found.

The Search

On finding the car empty, his mother called the police at around 9:50 am from her friend’s phone and reported Sky missing. A 20-block radius around the car was searched, but no sign of Sky was found. Police K9's were used in the search, but the dogs did not pick up any scent of Sky outside of the car.

As soon as Police personnel arrived, his mother’s story began to fall apart. First of all, there was nothing wrong with the car. It started up as soon as the key was put in the ignition. It was checked for any kind of mechanical problems and none were found. The gas tank had 2.2 gallons in it.

Around 11 am, investigators went to Sky's father’s home to inform him Sky was missing. It was soon discovered that no one other than his mother and sister had seen Sky for two weeks (a neighbor being the last person to report a sighting). Residents of his mother’s apartment building in Redmond reported that they hardly ever saw him. They reported that Sky's mother would regularly go out and leave the children alone in the apartment. His father had not seen the children in months. The last time he knew someone seen Sky other than his mother was at a doctor’s appointment eight months before in April 2011.

Then investigators discovered another warning sign. This was not the first time Sky had been left alone in a car in public. When he was just two months old, his parents had gone shopping at Target and left him sleeping in the car on a 27°F day. Sky was alone for 55 minutes before the couple was paged to the parking lot. As a result of the incident, both parents were required to take parenting classes and complete community service hours. They have since gotten a divorce and Sky's father has custody of his older sister.

Conclusion

It is widely speculated that Sky's mother lied about everything that happened the morning that Sky disappeared. No one had seen the boy in 2 weeks, so it’s perfectly likely that he was never even in the car that morning. Investigators did question his sister Maile, who said that Sky had been in the car. But being just 4 years old at the time, she could easily have been coached or mistaken.

To this day, very little solid evidence has arisen in Sky’s case. As of February 2023, 20,000 hours and $2.5 million have gone into the investigation, and over 2,500 tips from the public have been looked into, all coming up cold.

The lack of progress is largely due to his parents not cooperating with investigators. Tragically, I doubt we will ever know what happened to little Sky unless someone has a change of heart and decides to come forward. No one has given up searching for him.

If you have any information about the whereabouts of Sky Metalwala, please contact the Bellevue Police Department.
450 110th Ave. NE
Bellevue, WA 98009

Telephone

425-452-6917