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Nancy Grace
Washington 2-year-old Vanishes From Mother`s Car
Aired November 08, 2011 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, GUEST HOST: Breaking news tonight out of Washington state, the mystery of a 2-year-old boy who vanishes from his mother`s car. Mommy runs out of gas, parks her silver Acura on the side of the road and then heads to a nearby gas station for a gas can.
But Mommy leaves behind the 2-year-old boy, choosing only to take her 4-year-old daughter. Why? The 2-year-old toddler boy all alone inside the car, still strapped into his carseat. When Mommy comes back, he`s gone, no sign of forced entry into the car. And in a shocking twist, cops arrive to find no sign of a gas can anywhere. And the car, allegedly on empty, according to the mom, starts right up.
Tonight, what really happened to 2-year-old baby Sky?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A missing 2-year-old boy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are looking for clues to the disappearance of Sky Metalwala.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) in the car.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sky has disappeared.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But officials are scrutinizing the mother`s story.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She and the boy`s father are reportedly going through a bitter custody battle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His mother told police she left him in her car in Bellevue.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the cold for an hour-and-a-half.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So that she could go get gas.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They don`t know if Sky walked away or if someone took him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The mother is the last to have seen the child in the car. And that`s what she`s been telling us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The dogs seem to be picking on up on something, but we`re not really sure if it`s a child or something else.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then when she got back, the little boy was gone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As a mother myself, I would never leave a child alone in a car for five minutes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please just return him back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Good evening. Jane Velez-Mitchell, in tonight for Nancy Grace. Cops in Washington state searching for a 2-year-old boy who mysteriously vanishes from his mother`s own car. But the mother`s story doesn`t seem to add up after Mommy claims she runs out of gas and leaves the little boy behind, only to return and find him vanished.
Let`s go straight out to Casey McNerthney, reporter with Seattlepi.com. Casey, what`s the very latest?
CASEY MCNERTHNEY, SEATTLEPI.COM (via telephone): Well, we just had a press conference here in Bellevue where we heard from police. And what they said was that the mother had told them that she was on her way to the local hospital, Overlake (ph) Hospital, and that the boy was feeling ill. We asked if there was more to that, but we don`t know exactly what the illness was.
The other big detail that came out of this press conference is that besides the mother, nobody has seen this child in the last two weeks, other than one neighbor more than a week ago.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Unbelievable! Well, that`s a -- talk about burying the lead, that`s a blockbuster there! Nobody has seen this child.
Marc Harrold, former officer, what do you make of that?
MARC HARROLD, ATTORNEY, FMR. OFFICER, ATLANTA PD: Well, that`s a huge lead. I hadn`t heard that until right now. That`s big. You`re looking for a chronology here. You`re trying to figure out who`s the last person that credibly saw the child. It may or may not have been the mother. The fact that she left the child in the car is inexplicable to me. But the fact that nobody had seen the child, that really may expand the chronology and really expand the investigation.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to go to the attorney for the father of this child. Thank you for joining us tonight, D. Michael Tompkins, divorce attorney for Solomon Metalwala, the dad.
I`ve been reading this. This is frightening! These are some of the divorce docs, where your client, the father of the missing child, claims that this mom is -- well, I mean, to put it in people terms, a lunatic, that she has a severe obsessive-compulsive disorder -- I`m reading now from the legal documents, the divorce documents. And your client claims she suffers from depression, bipolar, suicide ideation. "Every time someone steps in on her behalf as a friend, they`re endangering not only our children but Julia," the mother, as well.
This was written long before the child vanished, by the way. And it goes on to say that her mental state has been deteriorating for years, to the point where she is obsessively cleaning the same load of clothing four times every day, vacuuming the floors over and over again. She was so obsessed with having a clean house, she would not have food in the house, would not feed the kids, "was ignoring our daughter in favor of her cleaning."
"Under oath, I state Julia cared more about cleaning a countertop than she did about feeding our daughter. The child was ignored, and it became a matter of great concern."
This is unbelievable, D. Michael Tompkins! This -- this is long before this child disappears. What do you know?
D. MICHAEL TOMPKINS, DIVORCE ATTORNEY FOR MISSING 2-YEAR-OLD`S DAD (via telephone): Well, unfortunately, as you know, as an attorney, these kinds of allegations and finger pointing are more common now than at any time in the judicial dissolution marital, matrimonial law business.
Unfortunately, the real stuff, like what`s happened in these (ph) paperwork and that you`ve just quoted, and what`s happening, unfolding today is more than just finger pointing. And of course, the court has to somehow figure out the wheat from the chaff because these allegations...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Mr. Tompkins...
TOMPKINS: ... in order to gain...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: ... you represent the father of the missing child. I`m asking you respectfully, is this stuff, in your opinion, true? Is this woman mentally ill? Did she favor cleaning the house over feeding her child, in your opinion?
TOMPKINS: There`s no question that she is -- and what I`m trying to do is give the context of why the court left two children in her custody. Obviously, your listeners are going to want to know what decision-making process moved the court to do that. And the answer is, beats me. We tried like crazy to get custody, temporary custody, and we tried like the dickens to get permanent custody.
We were in a mediation on November 1st which lasted 10 to 12 hours, settling the divorce issues and the custody issues. And within 24 hours, she -- Mom wanted to overturn the mediated agreement. And then hours later, the kid is missing. So the timeline is very troubling.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Victoria Taft, radio talk show host. You`ve covered so many of these cases. The mother claims she left the child alone and went with her 4-year-old to get gasoline a mile away, comes back, and, oh, the child is missing, but the car started for cops. It didn`t run out of gas, according to the authorities. And now we`re finding out that relatives say they haven`t seen the baby in two weeks.
VICTORIA TAFT, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST, KPAM 860 AM: This stinks to high heaven, which, of course, is why we`re talking about it. But there are two blockbusters which have been revealed on your show tonight. One, that the child hasn`t been seen in two weeks, which you just said.
Two, the other thing is that they just had a news conference wherein the mother acknowledges that her child was not feeling very well and that they were on the way to the hospital. Why were they going to a hospital? Why would you leave a sick child in a car to go one mile away? I just checked the map of that area. There are several gas stations around this area. I`m not saying that they`re not within a mile. But what I am saying is that you don`t leave a sick child, supposedly sick child, in a car. That much we know.
This stinks to high heaven. There`s a slew (ph) nearby, which is where I expect that she wants to now point to to say maybe that`s where her child is. I don`t know if that`s where the search dogs are going. But these are all things which point to...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right.
TAFT: ... a woman who`s having some problems and took her kid with her.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: We`re delighted to have Major Mike Johnson of the Bellevue Police Department. Sir, put this in context for us. Are you deeming this a suspicious case? And if so -- I understand you`ve given the dad a polygraph. That was inconclusive, but he agreed to take another polygraph today, according to published reports. What about the mother?
MAJ. MIKE JOHNSON, BELLEVUE, WA, PD (via telephone): We have extended an invitation to Mom to participate in a polygraph. And she has declined our first attempt to make that happen.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So what say you, sir?
JOHNSON: Well, we want to eliminate suspects, right? We want to find out where Sky is. If -- you know, if by doing polygraphs on each and every one of the people that are close to this child, we can effectively eliminate them as suspects. And we`d like to have that opportunity with each one of these folks. And it`s difficult for us to get a no from the person that probably knows the most about this.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Is it fair to say that her story doesn`t add up, that she says she locked the doors and left -- and I understand there were witnesses who said that they passed by there. They didn`t see any child in the car. And then you apparently were able -- your officers were able to start the car, even though she said it ran out of gas.
JOHNSON: Yes. I can tell you more about the car and the working of the car probably tomorrow or the next day. We have not conducted a complete examination of the vehicle and the gas tank and all that.
I can verify that what you said is true, though, that a patrol officer at the scene did start the car and verified that there was a little bit of fuel in there, that the gas gauge was quite low, but was able to start it. We`ll know more on that as we do sort of a forensic examination of the vehicle which is in the -- in the next day or two.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Where is the other child, the 4-year-old, Major?
JOHNSON: The 4-year-old is in custody with the state through our child protective services, and is in good hands.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Are you going to get a search warrant to go into mother, Julia Bryukova`s, home?
JOHNSON: No search warrant is needed at this point. Julia has cooperated with us in that sense. She has given us permission to search her home, which we have done and will continue to do a little bit more. And she`s also given us permission to search the car, which we completed today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) get up in the morning to find out your child is missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) if she`s not in her right mind (INAUDIBLE) She`s done something with Sky. I don`t know what.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two-year-old Sky Metalwala was reported missing by his mother, Julia Bryukova.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We can only go off of what the mother told us, but we`re going to search beyond that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The child disappeared during a custody dispute between his parents. It`s an agonizing time for his father.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where is he? Who is he with?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His mother, Julia Bryukova, told police she left him in her car in Bellevue.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why is Julia out there in the morning, at 8:50 in the morning, especially in Bellevue? She lives all the way in Redmond.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She says the car ran out of gas and that she and her 4-year-old daughter went for help.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why? I don`t get it. Sky -- he`s 2. He can walk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She says Sky was missing when they got back to the car.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Officials are scrutinizing the mother`s story. They say when they arrived to find the vehicle in question, they were able to start the car.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now, what we have is the mother is the last to have seen the child.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She has done something. I don`t know what she has done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jane Velez-Mitchell, in tonight for Nancy Grace. Where is this precious little boy, Sky, who disappeared this past Sunday, allegedly left by his mother in a car while the mom says she went with the 4-year-old, her older child, to get gasoline, and then upon return finds the child missing, and all this happening just outside Seattle, Washington.
I got to go to Wendy Walsh, psychologist, co-host of "The Doctors." Now, let`s be real here. This is the document of the father of the child. They are in the midst of a very nasty divorce and custody battle.
But this is dated February 1st, 2011, a long time before this precious child vanishes. And the father claims that the mom, Julia, is severely mentally ill, and would forbid him from even using the toilet because she was obsessive-compulsive about cleaning.
But this is the scariest, and I`m reading a quote from the legal documents. And this is the claim of the father of the missing child. "By March 2010, Julia would not leave the house on time to go anywhere. She was like a prisoner who locked herself into a cellblock. She began to have dreams about killing our children, even telling me of her dreams about strangling our youngest child. This became very scary, and I knew it was time I had to do something."
What are your thoughts about this being written almost a year before this child disappears?
WENDY WALSH, PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, of course, these are allegations in a divorce case. I would like to see if she`s had any mental health history in terms of an actual diagnosis, Jane, because that`s the key. But the symptomology that he`s describing seems very OCD, except for these kind of depressive symptoms and hallucinating and -- you know, I get really concerned with someone who`s having constant dreams about killing their child. I mean, that`s something to maybe tell a mental health professional, or the cops at least.
But my concern, if I -- I mean, my stomach is telling me this is not good for baby Sky, that this car -- first of all, it`s abandonment and neglect of a mother. She can be arrested just for leaving her child alone in the car, first off.
Secondly, the fact that she says she was taking him to the hospital because he was ill -- what made him ill? Did she overclean? Did she use chemical cleaning products on her child? Was he poisoned? What happened that made her abandon him? And then for the car to start and there was no gas issue -- this is not good.
And you know where the answer is, Jane. The answer`s with the 4-year- old, I`m sad to say.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh, yes. Absolutely fascinating. Major Mike Johnson, have you attempted to talk to the 4-year-old who was there that day about whether her little brother was even in the car, and what happened?
JOHNSON: We were anxious to talk to the 4-year-old, as well. Obviously in these cases, we use specialists to do that, people that talk to children all the time and are truly experts at getting information from young kids. And unfortunately, in this case, we learned very, very little, if nothing at all from this young child, young female, about what happened to her brother.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, Major, this is what shocks me. This is reportedly not the first time Sky was left alone in a vehicle. According to published reports, in December of 2009, both of Sky`s parents, both of the boy`s parents were cited with reckless endangerment after leaving Sky, then 3 months old, in a car while they shopped at Target. According to documents, the couple left the baby in a Cadillac Escalade in a Target parking lot in 27-degree weather. What do you know, Major?
JOHNSON: We`re aware of that case, as well. We`re aware of all of the CPS referrals, the divorce proceedings. All of the documents that are out there, we`re poring over and looking for clues and leads, as well. It`s troubling, certainly. As a parent myself, you know, I can`t imagine for a minute doing something like that. But clearly, this family has had a history of doing that.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Let`s go to the phone lines. Melissa, Virginia. Your question or thought, Melissa.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Jane. Thanks for taking my call.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hi.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s kind of been answered. I wondered if they had questioned the 4-year-old. But will they continue to question her to see if they can, like, try to get a timeline of when maybe the little girl last saw her brother?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Wendy Walsh, it`s sometimes impossible to get that kind of information out of a 4-year-old. But sometimes, it is possible, maybe a re-interview.
WALSH: The problem is, they have no sense of time like we do. They don`t know what last week is or two weeks ago. So it`s really hard to make a chronological story with a small child telling it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The case of a missing 2-year-old boy in suburban Seattle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The whole story does not add up. There`s something missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The mother told police her car ran out of gas and she walked to a gas station with her 4-year-old, leaving Sky, who was buckled in his carseat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She says Sky was missing when they got back to the car.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People have come forward and said they saw the vehicle and no child in it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police are finally saying, yes, they suspect foul play in this disappearance.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really, really bizarre case.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jane Velez-Mitchell, in tonight for Nancy Grace. Where is this adorable little boy, 2-year-old Sky, who was left, according to his mother, in a five-point restraint carseat, because the car had allegedly run out of gas, while the mother and her older child, a 4-year- old girl, go for gas? When she comes back, the child is missing.
Straight out to Dr. Ann Contrucci. You`re a pediatrician. Is it possible for a 2-year-old boy to get out of a five-point restraint carseat, exit a vehicle, and walk away?
DR. ANN CONTRUCCI, PEDIATRICIAN: Jane, I guess if your name is Houdini, it`s possible. No. Absolutely not. A 2-year-old -- anyone who is a parent, as I am and most of us are -- you can`t get -- a 2-year-old cannot get out. Half the adults can`t -- have a hard time getting these kids unclipped out of their seats. So absolutely not.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to bring in the lawyers, Ray Giudice, Remi Spencer. Ray Giudice, first to you. Why did this mother have these children, when you`re hearing the horror stories that are contained in this divorce doc? Now, admittedly, that`s the father`s side of the story. But if there`s even a shred of truth to it, it`s alarming.
RAYMOND GIUDICE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, keep in mind, these folks didn`t go before a judge in a judicial hearing. They mediated this and came up with an agreement. So that allegations contained in that divorce pleading was never presented to a judge or a jury or DFACS or law enforcement. This thing was handled, quote, unquote, out of court.
And as the lawyer came on earlier and said, within 24, 48 hours, she`s looking to retract and go back on the agreement. So it was snakebit and doomed to fail from day one. But it looks like they circumvented the court system.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Remi Spencer, defense attorney, there has to be some way for the Department of Children and Families to find out about allegations like this and try to verify them or dispute them.
REMI SPENCER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You`re absolutely right. Every time, especially when parents such as these have been charged with endangering the welfare of the child, the division of youth and family service will investigate and monitor them for usually a period of time to make sure that the parents are capable of caring for their children. In this case, we`ve got to look and see if they did that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take a look at 2-year-old -- this is Sky Metalwala. He`s been missing now for three days.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mom says she left her little boy in the car for a little while. She came back, she says he was gone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We can only go off of what the mother told us, but we`re going to search beyond that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The FBI is getting involved in the investigation of a missing 2-year-old boy.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Bellevue Police say 2-year-old Sky Metalwala was with his mother and 4-year-old sibling.
SOLOMON METALWALA, FATHER OF MISSING 2-YEAR-OLD SKY: She should know where Sky is.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The mother told police her car ran out of gas and she walked to a gas station with her 4-year-old, leaving Sky who was buckled in his carseat.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her story doesn`t add up.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: She called a friend from the gas station.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They got back to the car and her child was gone.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Metalwala says he and his wife Julia have been going through a bitter divorce. He says he doesn`t believe her story about a roadside disappearance.
METALWALA: How would you leave him in a car in the cold for an hour and a half?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: He points out that Sky is big for a 2-year-old and could have walked to the gas station with his mom and his sister.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: People who lived in the area being searched watched crews go through their backyards. They told us they`re worried about the little boy.
METALWALA: The whole story does not add up. There`s something missing. And to find out what`s missing, that will lead us to our child.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HLN HOST: Jane Velez-Mitchell in tonight for Nancy Grace.
Where is this adorable little toddler, Sky, age 2? Disappears this past Sunday morning. The mother says she left him in the car even though he was sick reportedly, to go to the gas station to get gas, comes back, the child is gone. Cops say, well, we tried to start the car and it started. It wasn`t totally out of gas, and now we are hearing reports that this mother has a history of mental illness.
Straight out to NANCY GRACE producer Alexis Weed.
What do you know about the mother`s history of mental illness?
ALEXIS WEED, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER, COVERING STORY: The mother was committed to a mental health facility in 2010. Now she was committed involuntarily, meaning she went because her husband complained to police that she had suicidal threats. She had texted him, he says, saying that she was considering committing suicide. Police picked her up, brought her to that facility. She was there involuntarily for three days.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, and now here`s what I am hearing. A doctor who evaluated the mother, and apparently that prescribed her with lithium and a whole bunch of other drugs, concluded she did have severe obsessive- compulsive disorder, which her husband said led her to clean obsessively to the point where she didn`t even want to feed her kids because she was cleaning so obsessively, allegedly, according to the husband.
But these doctors recommended it was OK for her to have contact with her children.
Victoria Taft, what?
VICTORIA TAFT, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST, AM 860 KPAM, COVERING STORY: Yes, Jane. I am shaking my head just as you are. And the thing is, is that don`t you normalize someone on some drugs before you decide if they are fine to take care of their children? Furthermore, if you are so obsessed with cleaning things to the exclusion of everything else in your life, how do you be sure that they could take care of the children?
And furthermore, I really think that that news conference today, Jane, was a key. If you`ve got the mother now admitting that there was something wrong with the child, I believe that there`s probably one whale of a lot more to come very, very soon.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, we can tell you we`ve been talking to police. And she is not considered a suspect. There are no suspects or persons of interest in this case.
I want to go back out to the attorney for the estranged husband, the father of this precious 2-year-old, a father who was frantic tonight, who took a polygraph, it came back inconclusive reportedly. He`s apparently willing to take another.
But what`s your response to one of the attorneys here tonight saying that essentially he circumvented the criminal justice intervention by mediating the divorce, and we have just gotten the cops involved it would have been a better idea.
D. MICHAEL TOMKINS, DIVORCE ATTORNEY FOR DAD OF MISSING 2-YEAR-OLD: The document that you are waving around at the beginning of the show is a court document. This matter was filed in King County Superior Court. It was litigated throughout, and the culmination of the litigation ended in a mediation, which is what 99 percent of the people do.
The reality is that the document that you`re waving around is the father`s sworn declaration to the court where he lays out, in page after page, in detail, about all of the allegations, all of the problems, all of the OCD issues, including mom being afraid or somehow psychologically impaired to feed the children.
That`s in the declaration to the court. It`s also what CPS understood. The OCD, which we all know can be minor or very, very aggressively acting out, apparently in this case the latter, mom was so upset about cleaning that she didn`t want the family to sleep in the bed and/or to really mess up the kitchen, which means, you don`t feed the children because you don`t want to mess up the kitchen. And it goes --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Michael, may I jump in here? Why was DCF -- why was the Department of Children and Families not brought in? And this laid out as almost a criminal thing, get these children out of her house?
TOMKINS: The CPS, Child Protective services, was involved on several occasions investigating the allegations of both parents, pointing the finger at each other, which as I mentioned at the beginning of the show and the court believed that mom was a fit and proper custodial parent for the - -
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Why?
TOMKINS: -- (INAUDIBLE) of the litigation and it beats me.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wendy Walsh, what is going on here? Is it sexist because she`s a female, she`s the mother as opposed to the dad? I mean I know they both apparently were cited allegedly for leaving the kid in the car one prior time in 2009 while they went to Target shopping. But you have to think, with these kinds of allegations in her having been actually committed, involuntarily committed to a mental clinic in 2010, that that would be enough to remove the children from the home.
WENDY WALSH, PH.D., PSYCHOLOGIST, EXPERT ON MOMLOGIC.COM: Well, you would think so, Jane, but you know courts are not in a real hurry to remove small children from their mother because of the huge attachment injuries of course that can take place.
And remember, she was committed involuntarily because he said she was having suicidal thoughts, not necessarily thoughts about harming the children in that case. And then supposedly, you know, she was stabilized on medication afterwards. So the court is hearing that side of the story. And then they`re hearing this other side that way back when, when he was just a small baby, he was left alone in a car by both parents. So it comes down to who do you believe?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let me just say this, Dr. Ann Contrucci, you`re a pediatrician, given that history if they are going to leave the children there, relatives report they haven`t seen the baby in two weeks, shouldn`t the Department of Children and Families at least visit the kids every couple of days to make sure they`re OK? To make sure the mother is still on her meds?
DR. ANN CONTRUCCI, M.D., PEDIATRICIAN: Well, I think one of the concerns, Jane, would be if the mother has some mental illness. I mean there`s plenty of parents that have depression and OCD and bipolar and that -- that can take care of children just fine.
They`re on medication. And if there was already an open case, it`s a little concerning to me why there wasn`t some sort of follow-up, you know, home study, home visits, that kind of thing. That`s usually pretty typical thing.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes.
CONTRUCCI: If there`s any question or concern.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Especially if the estranged husband is saying she doesn`t want to have food in the house where she has two young children because she doesn`t want to dirty the counter tops. Maybe DCF should go in there and open the fridge and see if there`s anything in the fridge.
CONTRUCCI: I agree totally.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I mean, seriously, this is -- blows my mind. Look at this little boy. He`s helpless. He`s 2 years old. He cannot feed himself.
It`s beyond comprehension. OK. Out too the phone lines.
Wendy in Connecticut. Your question or thought, Wendy.
WENDY, CALLER FROM CONNECTICUT: Hi, Jane. How are you?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Good.
WENDY: Hello?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hi, Wendy. Go ahead, your question or thought, dear.
WENDY: I`m so sorry. Hi, dear. I just want to say I am a survivor of a violent crime, and I -- after watching this whole thing, I cannot help -- I don`t -- you know, I hate to say -- I`ll tell you what I want to say, to be honest. After the Casey Anthony, you know, I used to say tot mom being acquitted of murdering her daughter, you know which I believe she is guilty.
I really do. After the baby Lisa thing and all that, I don`t want to say, God forbid, you do -- you are a real true crime victim and survivor. I don`t want to say the wrong thing, but you know this doesn`t look good. I mean, you know, I do believe, though, after the Casey Anthony acquittal that it paves the way for parents or someone to do away with their child. And God help us if that`s the case.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, once again we have to say the mother is not considered a suspect, nor is the father. There are no suspects.
But Marc Harrold, what should cops do next?
MARC HARROLD, FORMER OFFICER, ATLANTA PD, ATTORNEY, AUTHOR OF "OBSERVATIONS OF WHITE NOISE": Well, you know, I don`t know how thorough they did. I know they did -- they don`t want to traumatize the child.
I agree. I think the 4-year-old is a key. I think they really need to talk to the 4-year-old. But they`ve got to look at that car. The majors said they`re going to look at the car in the next couple of days. Hopefully they get some physical forensic evidence and try to piece this together.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police searched through dumpsters at the home of 2-year-old Sky Metalwala, looking for any sign of the little boy`s whereabouts.
They have searched this apartment thoroughly within the last 24 hours. The mother is not saying anything publicly.
METALWALA: Why? I don`t get it.
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METALWALA: Anything can happen. She would do something with Sky. I don`t know what.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Disappearance of 2-year-old Sky Metalwala.
METALWALA: I don`t know.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The mom says that she left in her sole (ph) car.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Julia Biryukova said she ran out of gas and walked more than a mile to this Bellevue gas station.
METALWALA: I don`t get it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They got back to the car and the child was gone.
METALWALA: The whole story doesn`t add up. There`s something missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would never leave a child alone in a car.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We can only go off what the mother told us.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The father doesn`t buy his estranged wife`s story.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why is Julia out there in the morning at 8:50 in the morning, especially in Bellevue? She lives all the way in Redmond.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Where is this adorable handsome little toddler? Two- year-old Sky Metalwala. This is all happening just outside of Seattle, Washington, in Bellevue. And there is a frantic father. There is a mother who says that she left the child in this car because it ran out of gas, went to a gas station, came back about an hour later, the child is missing.
Cops say there was some gas in the car because it started up.
Straight out to Casey McNerthney, reporter, Seattlepi.com.
What about surveillance video? How far back are cops going?
CASEY MCNERTHNEY, REPORTER, SEATTLEPI.COM, COVERING STORY: Well, now cops are looking for any kind of surveillance video in the last two weeks. That`s the last that we know that a relative other than the mother, I mean her story, has seen this young child. So they`re looking for any kind of surveillance evidence that will back that up.
They`re also looking at her Redmond apartment, as you mentioned earlier. They`re trying to find any kind of physical evidence. Any kind of video images or other people who may have seen the child to put a better chronological timeframe on it.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. I want to go to D. Michael Tomkins, the divorce attorney for the father of the missing child.
What is your explanation of the previous incident in 2009 where it is alleged that both parents left little Sky, including your client, the father, in a vehicle to go shopping at Target in 27-degree weather.
TOMKINS: Bad judgment. Mr. Metalwala admits it, fessed up to it, realized that he had some soul searching to do. And that may well have poisoned the particular well when allegations were made by him in the document that was -- one of the many documents that were filed in this case wherein he said that he was personally very apprehensive of harm, physical harm, coming to the children.
So I`m guessing that played some sort of a factual point in leaving the children with mother, who clearly was disturbed, has been disturbed, was under psychiatric care, was on medication, was using bizarre behavior, bizarre language. Accusations totally unfounded. CPS dismissed all of her allegations, and the children remained, and we hope that the little one will be found, but as hours crawl by, everybody is more and more apprehensive.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And my gosh, the father must be going through hell. However, I`ve got to go back to you, Michael. You`re the attorney for the father. The dad`s polygraph was inconclusive. What say you?
TOMKINS: Actually that`s not accurate. The word inconclusive --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK.
TOMKINS: -- is an inconclusive word.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK.
TOMKINS: Inconclusive in general parlance means that the question was -- tough to understand and therefore not falsifying or not verifying. That wasn`t the case. He passed every question except a couple, and that was because -- and that was before this incident occurred. But the reality is when he has always said, I will take a polygraph any time, anywhere, under any circumstances and immediately did, and since he hadn`t been sleeping for 40, 45 hours, the polygraph examiner said we`ve got to do this again. There`s no reading here, there`s no yes, there`s no no. It`s totally inconclusive. He couldn`t even get his name right.
It`s -- you know, that`s when they said --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. OK, so I understand that. If he`s tremendously exhausted and he has agreed to take another poly. And we heard from Major Johnson of the Bellevue Police Department that the mother at this point has declined to take a polygraph.
Let`s go out to the phone lines. Collins in Florida, your question or thoughts, Collins?
COLLINS, CALLER FROM FLORIDA: Yes. It`s a three-part question. What I would like to know if she was Baker Act-ed and/or sitting in jail, and, or why not be charged with everything?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Alexis Weed, NANCY GRACE Producer?
WEED: Yes, Jane, we don`t know if she`s been Baker Act-ed. The involuntary commission to the mental health facility, that was -- created through her husband, who had said that she sent text messages to him. But she did thereafter agree to stay in a mental health facility and get further treatment after she was involuntarily committed.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right, I think we have Marge in Michigan. Marge, your question or thought.
MARGE, CALLER FROM MICHIGAN: Hi, Jane. I just wanted to know, did the mom have a working cell phone? And if she did, why didn`t she call the police, 911, and stay with the kids until the help arrived?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Excellent question. Casey McNerthney?
MCNERTHNEY: Well, police say that she didn`t have a working cell phone, and -- but there`s a lot of things about the story that they`re still investigating that don`t seem to add up. I mean -- I mean the big question is, you know, why. Why would you -- why would you walk to a gas station, and why would you not have your cell phone.
Another interesting thing that learned at the press conference this afternoon was that her friend, who she had contacted after getting to this gas station, was the one who first called police.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Fascinating because you would think a mother concerned about a child who`s ill would immediately call 911 for whatever reason. If you run out of gas. I would just -- my gosh, if I have a sick child, I would just immediately call 911.
But again, it doesn`t really -- it doesn`t make sense, Victoria Taft. It`s very confusing. Not to say that sometimes when things happen they always make sense. Sometimes things are confusing, and they don`t make sense for very innocent reasons. But it`s odd, Victoria.
TAFT: You`re so right. You`re absolutely right, Jane. That`s entirely possible. It`s entirely possible that when she decided that she was at the bottom of her gas tank she just stopped the car. When that happens to me, I coast as much as possible, believe you me.
I have been on -- you know, in that situation where I was on fumes. I always coast. I know what can happen to the catalytic converter, but I still do it. Why didn`t she do that? Why did it start up so easily after the police got a look at her car? She`s got a lot to answer for.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: His mother Julia Biryukova told police she him in her car in Bellevue. She says the car ran out of gas and that she and her 4-year-old daughter went for help. She says Sky was missing when they got back to the car.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Congratulations to our very own Nancy Grace for her amazing performance last night on "Dancing with the Stars." Nancy, doing two dances last night, the tango and instant jive.
Check this out.
Nancy, you can win this thing. Amazing. Amazing job.
Tonight, let`s stop to remember Army Private 1st Class Benny Franklin, just 19 years old from Hammond, Louisiana, killed in Afghanistan. He was awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, Combat Action Badge.
He loved to play basketball, dancing, and rap music. He leaves behind grieving mother Wanda, stepfather Charles, brother Colin, sister Shakisha (ph).
Benny Franklin. A true American hero.
Thanks to all of our guests, thanks to you at home.
Everybody, we`re going to see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern, right here. Until then, have a safe evening.
And Nancy, you can win this thing. We know you can.
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