Father will get custody of Sky Metalwala’s sister

Solomon Metalwala, the father of missing boy Sky Metalwala, will get custody of his 4-year-old daughter.

               KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter Chris Legeros was there Tuesday as Metalwala learned the unexpected news that the legal fight that kept him away from both his daughter and his now-missing son, Sky, had suddenly ended.

Metalwala arrived at the King County Courthouse expecting to attend a hearing to ask that a restraining order against him be lifted, but without opposition from his estranged wife, Julia Biryukova,  a family law commissioner terminated the order.

The way is now clear for Metalwala to regain custody of his daughter by her birthday on Dec. 18.

“I’m stoked.  I’m happy.  I’m really happy,” said Metalwala.  “We can just be a family, a dad and daughter.  And Sky’s out there, we’ll get him.”

• Special Section: The Search For Sky
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• Photos of Sky Metalwala and Julia Biryukova 
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Metalwala's 2-year-old son has been missing a full month, ever since his mother said she left him in a car in Bellevue.

Metalwala said he'll fight efforts by Biryukova to have supervised visits with her daughter.  Metalwala has said that in the past, his wife has mental health issues and is not in a state of mind to interact with her daughter.

“She needs to interact with herself first,” said Metalwala.

“She hasn’t helped at all in this process, and hasn’t been involved in the child that’s missing.  We sure hate to think about what would happen with the child that’s not missing,” said Metalwala’s lawyer, Clay Terry.

Biryukova and her lawyers haven't responded to requests for interviews, but her mother emailed Legeros on Monday night when he asked her about Metalwala getting custody of her granddaughter.

Nadia Biryukova said both parents "are equally responsible for destroying their marriage and family, (and) to be fair to Julia, one very important thing needs to be known. Julia started to experience some kind of postpartum depression (which is pretty common) after their first child was born. If she neglected anyone, she totally neglected to take proper care of herself." 

KIRO 7 Eyewitness News has continued to invite Biryukova or one of her attorneys to respond to requests for interviews.