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Nancy Grace
Search Continues for Missing 2-Year-Old Washington Boy
Aired November 09, 2011 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight, live, Washington state. Mystery surrounding the disappearance of a 2-year-old little boy, vanishing from Mommy`s silver Acura sports car after she says she runs out of gas. But when she leaves the Acura on the side of the road, Mommy takes the 4- year-old sister but not the 2-year-old baby. Baby Sky, allegedly asleep, still strapped in a carseat.
Bombshell tonight. Cops say no sign of forced entry and the car, no gas can -- the car starts right up. Cops confirm they cannot find a single relative who sees the baby for two full weeks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two-year-old Sky Metalwala.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He`s just (INAUDIBLE) return him back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The father of the missing child claims that this mom...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The mother was committed to a mental health facility in 2010.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To put it in people terms, a lunatic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Said she ran out of gas and walked more than a mile to this Bellevue gas station.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She says she was taking him to the hospital because he was ill. What made him ill?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She took her 4-year-old daughter with her, but says she left her sleeping son in his carseat.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why would you leave with him in the car, in the cold?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can`t imagine for a minute doing something like that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two years ago, when the parents left this same child, then just a baby, sleeping in his carseat as the two shopped.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But clearly, this family has had a history of doing this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sky, age 2, disappears this past Sunday morning.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why?
Why?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight. Mystery surrounding the disappearance of a 2- year-old little boy, allegedly vanishing from Mommy`s silver Acura sports car after she says she runs out of gas. But the cops say no sign of forced entry in the car, no gas can. The car starts right up when they try to crank it. And cops confirm they cannot find a single relative placing the boy alive in the last two weeks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why is Julia out there in the morning, at 8:50 in the morning?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She said her son was feeling ill.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She says that she left in her stalled (ph) car.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Julia Byrukova (ph) said she ran out of gas and walked more than a mile to this Bellevue gas station.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t get it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have extended an invitation to Mom to participate in a polygraph, and she has declined.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Foul play is under consideration here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The patrol officer at the scene did start the car and verified that there was a little bit of fuel in there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mom`s story has (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The whole story does not add up. There`s something missing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That a timeline is very troubling. All of the OCD issues.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Besides the mother, nobody has (INAUDIBLE) in the last two weeks other than one neighbor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m going to stay hopeful. The police department`s going to stay hopeful.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fear (ph) in my mind that she did something to Sky.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Hello, everyone. We are live in the search for baby Sky. Mommy says that she apparently ran out of gas and walked over a mile to the closest gas station? She chose to take her 4-year-old little girl with her, leaving the 2-year-old little boy strapped in a carseat, allegedly asleep? When she gets back, she says the boy is gone.
Straight out to Casey McNerthney with Seattlepi.com. Casey, thanks for being with us. What can you tell me?
CASEY MCNERTHNEY, SEATTLEPI.COM (via telephone): Well, we heard yesterday from police just what you were saying, that the only person who has seen 2-year-old Sky in the last two weeks was a neighbor. The neighbor couldn`t pin down exactly what day he was last seen. We know that the boy doesn`t have a passport, but the mother does. And police have expanded the search to her Kirkland (ph) apartment and are also working with the FBI to try and trace him down.
GRACE: Everyone, you are seeing pictures of baby Sky. He is just 2 years old.
To you, Alexis Weed. There`s so much background to this case. Mommy has been diagnosed as OCD. And typically, I wouldn`t be concerned about that except the levels we are hearing about, where she wouldn`t let anyone sleep on the beds after they had been made because they looked perfect, she wouldn`t allow food in the home for periods of time because she thought it was dirty, would not let anyone use the bathroom because she thought that was dirty -- is it true that your research reveals she often threatened that she would not feed the children?
ALEXIS WEED, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Right, Nancy. This information is coming from court documents that were filed by the father in this bitter divorce case that the couple is having. The father is claiming that she had such severe OCD that she would vacuum in straight lines, that she would not keep food in the cupboards, not keep food in her refrigerator, leaving the kids with no food in the home.
He says that he would fear that these kids wouldn`t even be fed properly, that she would choose to clean the house rather than feed her kids.
GRACE: We are taking your calls. Out to Kim in South Carolina. Hi, Kim. What`s your question? I think I`ve got Kim with me. Kim, are you there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You mean Tim?
GRACE: Hi. Hi, Tim. What`s your question, dear?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes, and I`m in South Dakota, not South Carolina. Well, my question was -- well, recently, there`s a kid that went missing for six days in Virginia, Robert Wood (ph). And I was wondering, are they still looking for this Sky? I mean, what if she really did leave him in the car? I guess it`s happened before. Maybe he wandered off. Because I know my 2-year-old could unbuckle one of them carseats.
GRACE: You know what, Tim. That`s a great question. Two years old, he could possibly have unbuckled one of the -- the carseat. It was one of those seats that have five different points of restraint. Also, it`s my understanding that the Acura sports car was parked up a hill, which would have made it more difficult for the boy to get out, open the door and shut it. But your point is good.
By the way, on Robert Wood, the missing boy, autism -- he was found six days after vanishing, found alive.
Back to you, Alexis. What can you tell me in response to Tim in South Dakota`s question?
WEED: Nancy, I can tell you that the police did search immediately when this boy was reported missing. They searched around where the vehicle was left. They used search dogs, and they say they feel -- police are very, very confident that he is nowhere in that area, Nancy.
GRACE: Joining me right now is a special guest, Major Mike Johnson with the Bellevue police. Major, thank you for being with us. Major, what can you tell me about what police have done to find the boy?
I mean, I`ve got twins, and we actually do practice runs where one gets on my back and I hold the other one. One`s 50 pounds. One is about 43 pounds. I can still carry each of them in each arm, if I have to.
Tell me what police are doing to verify her story, if you can.
MAJ. MIKE JOHNSON, BELLEVUE PD (via telephone): It`s a great point and one that many parents have mentioned to us in regard to -- you know, you make it work. If you have two kids, you need to abandon your vehicle, you make it work and you take the kids with you. We get that.
To the caller`s point -- the indications are from the search and rescue dogs that, you know, are experts at this kind of thing, that Sky did not climb out of the car and walk away. There`s no indication of that and there`s no scent to indicate that that happened.
GRACE: So -- everyone, with us, Major Mike Johnson, also taking your calls. So that says to me that you have actually used scent dogs, bloodhounds, right?
JOHNSON: That`s correct. King (ph) County search and rescue -- dozens of them, literally, were out there Sunday afternoon and evening, canvassing that entire area, looking for signs of Sky without any luck.
GRACE: To Dr. Patricia Saunders -- I want to ask you -- clinical psychologist joining us out of New York -- Dr. Patricia, what can you tell me about this level of OCD, obsessive-compulsive disorder? I also know that on one occasion, she was involuntarily committed. I also know that at one juncture, she was prescribed lithium.
PATRICIA SAUNDERS, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, OCD refers to obsessive-compulsive disorder, obsession to thought, compulsion to act. It`s usually fairly contained to ideas about dirtiness and filth and disease. But this woman was diagnosed as severe OCD. It`s highly unusual for people to have dreams of killing and strangling their children.
Also, Nancy, she was on anti-psychotic medication when she was in the hospital. Sometimes OCD is prodromal, meaning the tip of an iceberg of more severe psychology, such as a schizo-affective disorder. In other words, this woman may have been delusional and possibly murderous.
GRACE: When you say -- what did you say, schizo what?
SAUNDERS: Schizo-affective disorder. It`s kind of a cross between manic-depressive illness and schizophrenia. It`s highly dangerous and very difficult to control.
GRACE: You know, I originally said, Somebody get me a DNA match on the boy. I want to make sure that this is the boy`s biological father. But when you see the father holding this boy, I don`t need DNA. He looks like he spit him right out of his mouth. He looks exactly like his daddy.
I want to go out to Victoria Taft, radio talk show host joining us, AM 860 KPAM, joining us out of Portland. Victoria, a real pleasure to have you with us. Victoria, it`s a real pleasure to have you with us. What can you tell me about the status of their marriage?
VICTORIA TAFT, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST, AM 860 KPAM: Well, thank you very much for having me on, Nancy. I appreciate it. And the status of the marriage was almost a dissolved marriage. It was acrimonious, to say the least. There was a power play between the husband, clearly, and the wife. He would call her crazy. She would pretend she was crazy, she said, in order to get his affection. In other words, on several times, it says in the court papers that she...
GRACE: OK, wait a minute!
TAFT: ... tried to say that she was...
GRACE: Wait a minute, Victoria!
TAFT: What`s that?
GRACE: That`s a surefire way to hold on to a man is act like you`re insane! OK, go ahead.
TAFT: Suicidal. She claimed she was suicidal in order to get his affection, she said. This is what she told the psychiatrist when she was voluntarily admitted. And by the time she got out, her scale that psychiatrists apparently use to determine how affected someone is, was reduced significantly.
But the fact that she feigned suicidal tendencies in order to keep her husband, which is what she claimed to have done, is something that should be troublesome to everyone.
GRACE: Everybody, take a look at little Sky. Sky, 2 years old, 2 feet, 2 inches, 39 pounds, dark brown hair, brown eyes, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, black and aqua blue Carter (ph) sweatpants and white socks. Tip line, 425-542-2564. We have an all-star panel taking your calls.
As we go to break, I want to take this chance to thank you for all of your support, the love, e-mails, letters, phone calls and votes on "Dancing With the Stars." Because of you, Tristan and I made it to the top five.
Last night, our curtain fell. I set out to show the twins, if you believe and you work hard enough, dreams come true, and that when the chips are down, never stop trying to keep your chin up. I`m not so sad it`s over. I`m happy it ever happened. All my money to National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. We`ll be back. "Dancing With the Stars" big finale, November 22. And again, thank you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We found DNA in Mom`s apartment and Sky`s apartment and in the car. We don`t know who a lot of that DNA belongs to. If we know the people that were supposed to have been there, we can eliminate them and match them up with the DNA that we found and eliminate that as a possible lead or suspect.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The investigation of a missing 2-year-old boy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Julia Byrukova said she ran out of gas and walked more than a mile to this Bellevue gas station.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leaving Sky, who was buckled in his carseat.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They got back to the car, and the child was gone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This stinks to high heaven.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It didn`t run out of gas, according to the authorities.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She told us that Sky was not feeling well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was on her way to a local hospital.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The mother`s story doesn`t seem to add up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don`t leave a sick child, supposedly, in a car.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So far, we`ve only been able to locate one person that`s seen Sky within the last two weeks, and that was a neighbor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s the blockbuster there. Nobody has seen this child?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The whole story does not add up. There`s something missing. And find out what`s missing, that will lead us to our child.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Welcome back. We are live and taking your calls. Baby Sky missing. Mommy says she runs out of gas, but only takes her 4-year-old little girl with her, leaving the 2-year-old on the side of the road, strapped in a carseat?
I want you remind you, Mommy is not a suspect. Mommy has not been named a suspect.
Let`s go out to the lines. Crystal in Kentucky. Hi, Crystal. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. Just briefly, I`ll miss you on "Dancing." I love to see the twins. My question is, it was reported last night that both the parents had left the child before in the car alone. Do you know why they were still in the home?
GRACE: You know what? Good question. Out to Alexis Weed. Weigh in.
WEED: Nancy, the parents previously were cited for an incident in 2009. This is December out in the Northwest, so temperature`s 27 degrees. The couple was cited for leaving little Sky at 3 months old in their car, in their Cadillac Escalade, while they shopped at Target.
The parents told police when they arrived on the scene after a fellow shopper called 911, saying they heard a baby crying in the car -- cops arrive, parents say, Well, we were just in Target for about 20 minutes. But it turns out from surveillance tapes that shows the parents were in that Target for more like an hour.
GRACE: You know what? It`s just so disturbing. All the signals were there that there was a problem. Repeat, Mommy not a suspect.
Unleash the lawyers. Joining us out of Atlanta, Kirby Clements, former prosecutor now a defense attorney. Out of Miami, Lorna Owens. OK, Kirby, give me your best shot.
KIRBY CLEMENTS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I think that this is a mystery. The mother is not a suspect. There`s no evidence linking her to a crime. There`s no evidence that the baby is deceased. Someone else could have taken him there. The father doesn`t have these clean hands. Everyone`s making him seem like a concerned dad, but he also left that boy in the car, in 27-degree weather for, like, an hour.
So I would suggest that what we have here is a genuine mystery of a missing child, and people ought to be more sympathetic to this woman.
GRACE: You know what, Kirby? Everything that you just said was true, but your argument doesn`t make any sense because you`re trying to point the finger at the daddy. The daddy wasn`t there at the time the baby went missing, so he`s not even an issue. And he agreed to...
CLEMENTS: Oh, no...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Yes, you just brought him up. You just said he didn`t have...
CLEMENTS: OK, and by the way, he didn`t pass a polygraph, either.
GRACE: As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted -- his polygraph was inconclusive, and he`s agreed to take yet another polygraph, while Mommy refuses to take even a single polygraph.
But let me get back on track to respond to what you said. You said you`re not pointing the finger at the daddy, but you did say Daddy doesn`t have clean hands because he`s left the baby alone before, too. Well, you know, that`s bad enough in itself, but that he`s not involved in any way on the day the baby goes missing.
We have no indication that the baby has been kidnapped, as you just said. And you reiterated Mommy`s not a suspect. That`s not what I asked you. When you go in to defend a case in court, is that what you tell a jury, Kirby Clements? They`re not a suspect. I don`t think so. I just said she`s not a suspect. I want to hear your theory!
CLEMENTS: My theory at this point, is, like I said at the beginning, which was we have a genuine mystery. That`s what I said. And as to the father, I`m not pointing the finger at him, but we are sitting here talking about the mother`s mental health...
GRACE: Back on him.
CLEMENTS: ... the mother`s mental health...
GRACE: OK...
CLEMENTS: ... issues because the Daddy...
GRACE: OK, never mind, Kirby. The daddy was not even around that day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All he wants is his son. Solomon Metalwala says nothing prepared him for the news that Sky has disappeared.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where is he? Who`s he with?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have never had trouble reaching her. She has responded to every question we`ve asked. Whether we like the answer or not, that`s neither here nor there. But the point is, she`s available, she`s responsive, she`s cooperating in that sense. You`re as frustrated and the public, I`m sure, is as frustrated as we are in the fact that Mom isn`t willing to come in and provide a polygraph. To be quite honest, that looks suspicious, and we`re puzzled by that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The case of a missing 2-year-old boy in suburban Seattle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 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 that 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)
GRACE: Welcome back. Where is baby Sky? We are taking your calls. Now out to Marc Klaas, president and founder of Klaas Kids Foundation. Marc, what do you make of it?
MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION (via telephone): Well, Nancy, I have great faith in search and rescue professionals. If there were dozens of them around the car and they say that the little boy did not exit the car on his own or did not exit the car and move off in another direction, I firmly believe that. That does not mean that they shouldn`t continue to search that area, however.
But if nobody`s seen Sky for two weeks, I think it`s quite possible that she has spent that time writing her script as to exactly how she was going to explain this away. And if she has a cleaning compulsion, I think it`s really unlikely that the authorities will find anything in her apartment.
I suspect that the true answer to this lies with the little girl, the little daughter that is now in protective custody, I think in a foster situation. And I think the authorities will be very, very careful as they continue to question her and try to elicit information to find out what really happened because she knows whether or not that little boy was in that car that day.
GRACE: Yes, and at that age, age 4, she`s able to communicate that. Alexis Weed, what do we know about the little girl and her story?
WEED: Nancy, the little girl was interviewed the day immediately after that Sky was missing. At that time, she said, yes, Sky had been in the car that day along with her. But then the child was re-interviewed yesterday, and police said yesterday that those results were really inconclusive, that nothing significant came from that interview.
GRACE: To Sheryl McCollum, crime analyst, director of cold case squad, and with the Institute of the Polygraph Analysis Expert. (ph) Hey, Sheryl, when you are OCD -- it`s tough to have a 2-year-old if you`re OCD. Two-year-olds are not neat as a pin.
SHERYL MCCOLLUM, CRIME ANALYST: They are not neat. And Nancy, to me, where you start with this case is her trash. You look in every trash can, every trash bag. You go to the dump, if necessary. If there is no evidence of diapers or wet ones or anything in the last two weeks, that child has not been there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I`m trying to do is get the context of why the court had left two children in her custody.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: But that`s a huge --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This stinks to high heaven, which, of course, is why we`re talking about it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What they said was, that the mother had told them that she was on her way to a local hospital.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My stomach is telling me this is not good for baby Sky.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, did the mom have a working cell phone and if she did why didn`t she call the police, 911?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s a lot of things about this story that they`re still investigating that don`t seem to add up.
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HLN HOST: Is it possible for a 2-year-old boy to get out of a five-point restraint car seat?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I guess if your name is Houdini, it`s possible. No. Absolutely not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Besides the mother, nobody has seen this child in the last two weeks other than a neighbor more than one week ago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST: Let`s go back to the facts as we know them. The search for baby Sky goes on. Mommy says that she`s driving along with baby Skye, 2 years old, and a little girl, 4 years old, when her car seemingly runs out of gas. She gets out of the car, gets the 4-year-old girl, starts walking, leaving the 2-year-old strapped in a car seat on the side of road.
She walks a little over a mile to a gas station, gets back over an hour has passed. She says Sky is gone.
With me, Major Mike Johnson from the Bellevue Police Department.
Major Johnson, again, thank you for being with us. Am I missing something in this -- in this recitation of the facts? Isn`t it true that cops went back, and when they turned the key in the car it cranked up just fine?
MAJOR MIKE JOHNSON, BELLEVUE, WA POLICE DEPT., INVESTIGATING CASE: That is true. It did start for us. And we noticed there seem to be a little bit of gasoline in the car. We`re working on the forensic examination of the vehicle now and will have more on that later.
I also wanted to add that the other part of the story that puzzles us a little bit is that mom tells us that the little boy, Sky, was very sick, and the reason she was traveling to Bellevue was to get him to a hospital. Sort of adds to the troubling nature of the fact that she leaves him behind in the car.
GRACE: What was the nature of the illness, Major Johnson?
JOHNSON: I don`t have any details on what was wrong with him yet.
GRACE: Huh. OK. Did the father, Alexis Weed, know anything about the child being sick?
ALEXIS WEED, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: No. We`ve heard nothing from the father about any knowledge that this child was ill. Just that she told police officers when she went back to the car after that 911 call was placed, that that`s where she was going. She was headed to a hospital.
And mind you, Nancy, this is not the closest hospital to the mother`s home.
GRACE: And again, to the nature of the illness, Alexis, what do we know?
WEED: We don`t know. We only know that the mother told police that`s where she was headed. She was going to get her boy help.
GRACE: And to Victoria Taft, talk show host, AM 860 KPAM -- Victoria, did she not have a cell phone?
VICTORIA TAFT, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST, AM 860 KPAM, COVERING STORY: No. Apparently she did not have a cell phone and in fact had to get to the gas station to call her friend to come back and get her, to go back to the car and get baby Sky presumably with a gas can which was nowhere to the found.
The other thing I`d like to know, Nancy, and I know this is something that`s right in your wheelhouse, was there any surveillance tape at the apartment? Did she have Sky in her arms? When she left the apartment she`s supposedly go get him some help at a hospital? That might tell us something as well.
GRACE: You know that`s a good question, Victoria Taft.
Back to Major Mike Johnson. I`ve been wondering about that and whether roadside video, practically everywhere you go. At red lights, at toll booths, all along the highways. You see those cameras on the highway. Were there cameras in this stretch of road?
JOHNSON: There are cameras within the area. What we`re trying to pin down right now actively is, is there some images that were captured between the time she left her apartment in Redmond Sunday morning and the time she arrived to that stretch of highway in Bellevue a short time later.
We`re canvassing the area, were searching for every possible option for camera footage that may have been captured along the route that morning but so far we have nothing.
GRACE: Major, when she got to the gas station, did she speak to anyone?
JOHNSON: She did. She spoke to the attendant at the station. Asked for a gas can. She was told that they didn`t have one available to give her. And I think it was at about that time that her friend arrived that she had called for help.
GRACE: OK. Did she call from the chevron telephone?
JOHNSON: Yes. I believe there`s a pay phone in the area that she used to communicate with her friend who ultimately called us for help.
GRACE: This is what I don`t understand.
Everybody, with me, Major Mike Johnson out of Bellevue.
She`s driving an Acura sports car. I heard that they had an Escalade back at the Target. That that`s a very expensive Cadillac SUV. They can afford that but they don`t have cell phones, Major? What`s that all about?
JOHNSON: What mom told us -- what Julia told us was that she had a cell phone but she left that at home along with her purse that morning.
GRACE: Well, wait a minute. Wasn`t she taking the baby to the hospital, Major?
JOHNSON: Yes, that`s what she told us.
GRACE: Well, then, where`s all the insurance information and the driver`s license and all that you`ve got to show at the hospital? You just can`t walk in the hospital. I can`t, anyway. I can`t even cash a check without five kinds of ID much less go to a hospital.
JOHNSON: Well, that`s questions like those that have us concerned about mom`s story. You`re exactly right.
GRACE: Repeat. Mom not named a suspect at this juncture.
To Derek in Montana. Hi, Derek. What`s your question?
DEREK, CALLER FROM MONTANA: Hi, Nancy. Great to be here with you. Thank you for all you do --
GRACE: Likewise.
DEREK: For crime victims. My brother Ryan was abducted and murdered in 1987 here in Montana, and so I sure appreciate everything that you do for victims around the nation. So I appreciate that.
GRACE: Thank you.
DEREK: My question is, what is the level of mom`s cooperation at this point? Is she still cooperating with authorities?
GRACE: Good question.
Major Johnson, I know that dad has taken a polygraph. It was inconclusive and I think he`s going to take another polygraph, because it`s my understanding he wants to get himself cleared as a suspect so he can get the daughter who`s in Child Protective Services.
What about mommy? Has she been cooperative?
JOHNSON: She has been to a certain extent. She has allowed us to drive the route that she took that morning with her. She gave us consent to search her apartment, she gave us consent to search her car. She is represented by an attorney and stopped short of cooperating with the polygraph at this point.
GRACE: So she won`t take a polygraph? Have you asked her to take a polygraph?
JOHNSON: We asked her specifically through her attorney to cooperate with the polygrapher and she declined that invitation.
GRACE: Major, have you guys checked the trash?
Our cold case expert, Sheryl McCollum, and we go way back in the trenches fighting crime, Major. Good question she had about, if there were diapers or wet wipes in her trash? Because with a 2-year-old, you`ve got to have that.
JOHNSON: Yes. That person is absolutely correct. Trash tells a lot of the story, and it`s something that we`re looking at. Something that we`re still looking at from multiple locations and will be a key part of the investigation as we move forward.
I cannot talk about specifically what we found in the trash yet.
GRACE: Yes. And you know what, Major, you`re right, because sometimes if you don`t have a sighting of that child for two weeks, with this lady being OCD, you know she put her trash out. So you`re headed to the dump, Major.
I know you climbed all the way up the ladder to become major, now you`re going to be peeking through trash.
You know, this is not the first time this has happened in a Cadillac Escalade, the child was left outside of a Target. Now mommy says she left the child on the side of the road, and the child is gone.
We are taking your calls, and I want to take this chance again to thank you guys for all of your support and love, the e-mails. The votes on "Dancing with the Stars." Because of you, Tristan and I made it to the top five. Last week our curtain called. I set out to show the twins that if you believe and work your dreams can come true. Thank you.
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JOHNSON: We have extended an invitation to mom to participate in the polygraph, and she has declined our first attempt to make that happen.
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JOHNSON: When you hear this story that mom has told, you have to scratch your head and wonder, why? If that`s really what happened, why? You know, this kid was sick, is what we know. She was on the way to the hospital with him. Why, then -- forget about the sickness and being on the way to the hospital. Why would you leave a 2-year-old in the car? But add that in, and it`s certainly -- it certainly looks suspicious and we`ve got to look at that and figure out what all that means.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Two-year-old Sky Metalwala was reported missing by his mother Julia Biryukova.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody in the area knows the story, ran out of gas, got out of the car, left Sky who was sleeping in the car at the time in his car seat.
SOLOMON METALWALA, FATHER OF MISSING 2-YEAR-OLD SKY: Why? I don`t get it. Sky, he`s 2. He can walk.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And she and her 4-year-old daughter walked to a nearby gas station. It was about a mile away.
METALWALA: Why would you leave him in the car? In the cold? For hour and a half?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When they reached the car, the child wasn`t there.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: 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: We`ve only been able to locate one person that has seen Sky within the last two weeks and that was a neighbor.
METALWALA: She has done something. I don`t know what she has done.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t know if there`s been a crime yet.
METALWALA: The whole story does not add up. There`s something missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s been over 48 hours, and there has been nobody that`s come forward telling us where Sky is.
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GRACE: Welcome back. Where is baby Sky? We are taking your calls.
Straight you out to Dr. Dorothy Wiggins, pediatrician, joining us tonight.
Dr. Wiggins, question. Sky was strapped into a five-point safety restraining seat in the car. What does that mean as far as a 2-year-old being able to get out of it?
DR. DOROTHY WIGGINS, PEDIATRICIAN: I mean, that`s why you put a 2- year-old in a five-point restraint. So that they cannot get out while you`re operating your car. It will be very difficult for a sick 2-year-old as well to get out of a five-point harness. Now, they may get out of one portion of that and not the other portion, but to completely get out of that and a child is ill, that would be difficult for me to rationalize.
GRACE: You know, Dr. Wiggins, the thing -- hey, Liz, let me see that restraining -- that car seat again.
A lot of times the hard thing for them to do is to push down hard enough with enough force to release the seat belt.
WIGGINS: The bottom, yes.
GRACE: Would you agree?
WIGGINS: I totally agree with that. That`s exactly what`s difficult, and in a car seat that has those five-point harnesses, I mean, you`re going to have difficult points in more than one access. So that`s -- that`s definitely true.
GRACE: Yes, let`s see -- let`s see it again. Liz, it`s got -- Dr. Wiggins I think is talking about, she said the one down at the bottom. The ones across the chest you just snap, but the one that goes between the child`s leg, usually snaps into something, you have to push it really lard to get it released.
And Dr. Wiggins, let me ask you this. What does it mean to you that someone has been on lithium? What is that used for?
WIGGINS: Well, it can be used for multiple psychiatric illnesses, but the fact that the mom has been on hospitalized, has been on the medication, we obviously know she has some type of psychiatric illness. Where she is along the entire spectrum we don`t know, but there can definitely be points of time where she`s undermedicated, overmedicated and she`s just definitely at a risk for her children.
GRACE: Joining me right now is a special guest. Michael Tomkins, D. Michael Tomkins. He`s the divorce attorney for baby Sky`s father, Solomon.
Thank you for being with us, Mr. Tomkins. At what stage was the divorce?
D. MICHAEL TOMKINS, DIVORCE ATTORNEY FOR DAD OF MISSING 2-YEAR-OLD: The divorce was at the mediation stage, which, as you know, is an attempt by all the parties to avoid a trial and see if we can settle all the issues by all the parties, which was done November 1st at 1:30 a.m. after a marathon mediation that lasted 10 to 12 hours.
GRACE: My goodness. Ten to 12 hours? Is that normal?
TOMKINS: That`s -- that`s my personal record, and no one -- and everybody stayed, and the 50th floor of a downtown Seattle office building trying to hash it out, and within 24 to 36 hours after that mediation, the document was signed.
Julia wanted to have it overturned by the court, and sent us a letter indicating that she had been coerced and this was not her intention to sign off on the deal.
GRACE: Wow. OK.
TOMKINS: Very strange time.
GRACE: Given the fact that she no longer wanted to abide by the mediation, where did that land the whole thing?
TOMKINS: Well, it would have landed it in the middle of a contract battle, rather than a custody battle, as to -- with the validity and the enforceability of that agreement, but now everything is on hold and custody is the least of dad`s issues.
GRACE: Had it been acrimonious, D. Michael Tomkins --
TOMKINS: Very. Finger pointing for 18 months. Accusations of abuse, physical, mental, emotional. CPS, Child Protective Services got involved, reviewed everything. Helped that the father had never done anything improper. The finger pointing was continuing, and more aggressive, and more vociferous until the end of the mediation where everybody was exhausted, in tears, but done. That didn`t last very long. Did it?
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers in addition to D. Michael Tomkins joining us out of Seattle, Washington, tonight, he`s the divorce lawyer for baby Sky`s father Solomon.
Kirby Clemens and Lorna Owens. Also with me, clinical psychologist, Dr. Patricia Saunders.
OK, first to you, Dr. Pat. Have you noticed that when divorces are brewing or breakup is about to occur, incidents occur, like children go missing, violence occurs?
Again, mommy is not a suspect. Weigh in, Dr. Patricia.
PATRICIA SAUNDERS, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, abduction of children is often part of parental alienation. One parent will try and punish the other by removing the child from them, and in some extreme cases, will kill them.
GRACE: Kirby Clements, Lorna Owens, again, mommy has not been named a suspect. Daddy agreeing to take another polygraph in order to get his little girl out of child custody.
What does that say to you, Lorna Owens, that they are in the middle of a very contentious divorce?
LORNA OWENS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It says to me that any of the parents could in fact be a suspect. What we know is that the father did his polygraph. It`s inconsistent and they want the mother to do it. If I were her attorney, based on his medical history -- her medical history, I wouldn`t do it.
GRACE: OK. Kirby?
KIRBY CLEMENTS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: She`s absolutely correct. I mean several things. Number one, if a polygraph is done properly you should either get a real answer. The fact that the dad`s came back inconclusive - -
GRACE: That`s not true. You get inconclusive a lot of times.
A big congratulations to Leslie Miller. My friend who completed the New York marathon November 6th. To do it she has to miss her daughter`s 10th birthday on November 7th. Now that is dedication. But notice the doll in the photo. Sidney, her daughter, made an action figure. That`s mommy complete with bib number, ponytail, and the color of the outfit she wore in the race. She tells her daughter, you know, you`re never getting this Barbie back because I`m going to keep it forever. Along with that finisher medal and bib number.
Finish time, four hours, 27 minutes. You go, Leslie. And happy birthday, little Sidney.
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GRACE: Everyone, before I sign off, I want to thank you for all of your support on "Dancing with the Stars." It was really hard. But because of you we made it to the top five. Then our final curtain call. But Tristan and I, back for the "Dancing" season finale.
Everybody, let`s stop and remember Army Staff Sergeant Tane Baum, 30, Pendleton, Oregon, killed Afghanistan. Awarded Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Army Achievement. Loved ocean, mountains, hiking. Remembered as a family man. Leaves behind parents Damie and Ruth, widow Tina, sons Dyllan and Caelan.
Tane Baum, American hero.
And a very special good night to Florida friends of the show, Ron and Carla Livingston, and Janice Griffin.
Now believe it or not, Janice is actually the mom, although she looks like the sister.
Thank you, guys, for traveling to our show.
Thanks to our guests, but especially to you. And everyone, I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
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