A trip of “discovery” gone horribly wrong

 

Ten years since the disappearance of a then 2-year-old boy in Bellevue, Washington named Sky Metalwala, law enforcement has made exactly zero progress in finding him despite receiving 2,500 “tips,” and The Seattle Times has shown exactly zero interest in the case, since the victim was not a cute white girl and the suspected perpetrator is a white woman, a naturalized Russian/Ukrainian immigrant named Julia Biryukova. She and the boy’s father, Solomon Metalwala, had a turbulent relationship, much of it to do with Biryukova's “obsession” with “cleanliness” that also caused problems with neighbors (they were cited for violating noise rules in their condominium for running a vacuum cleaner after 11 PM). Besides being diagnosed with “obsessive compulsive disorder,” she had other disturbing psychological lapses that led to her being committed three times for potentially being a danger to herself and their two children, including a daughter. Biryukova was hospitalized, for example, after claiming that she was having “dreams” of killing the children.

Yet despite her history of mental health issues that suggested that she might harm the children, and that Child Protective Services found no evidence to substantiate her claims that Metalwala had abused the children, Biryukova was given full custody of the children, and Metalwala denied visitation rights, after their divorce in 2011. Just two days after their divorce was finalized, Biryukova claimed the Sky had become sick, and she was driving him to a hospital in Bellevue when her car ran out of gas. She claimed that she left him in the car while she took her daughter on a hunting expedition for gasoline. She claimed that when she returned the boy “missing,” yet police found that her car still had more than two gallons of gasoline and was still operational.

Since then what has happened is that police have never charged Biryukova with anything, have not compelled her to submit to either questioning or a lie detector test, and outside of the rare local television “update,” and though the case remains “open” officially, for the local newspapers and the public in general, the case is closed “unofficially.” Yet everyone knows that Biryukova lied about the boy being in the car, and everyone knows that she knows what really happened to him, and yet she continues to walk free.

Biryukova’s mental health continued to be of such concern that after she gave birth to a third child in 2015, the father supposedly a man named James Morgan, a convicted felon and at the time in prison for violating a no contact order, CPS was notified by hospital staff about her unhinged behavior. Biryukova, despite police knowing full well her past, accepted her story that she had been physically abused by Morgan, even though she and Morgan claimed never to have actually lived together. Yet prison records showed that Biryukova—despite the no contact order—visited Morgan numerous times using fake names, and called him at least 70 times while he was in jail. Their child was removed from her custody, and Metalwala was also eventually given custody of his daughter. During a court appearance in 2019, Biryukova ignored reporters’ questions in regard to her son’s disappearance. Although it was possible that her Ukrainian father may have taken Sky with him after a visit, Metalwala’s attorney believes the boy is most likely dead.

Mental health issues were also central to the case of Gabby Petito in initial reporting, although you’d never know that now from media reporting with its “missing white woman” syndrome. Petito, like Biryukova, also seems to have suffered from at least obsessive compulsive disorder. During the Moab, Utah traffic stop that has been posted online, we hear Brian Laundrie speaking about how Petitio was constantly complaining about, and was acting erratically over, many “little things” that had to do with “cleanliness,” such as her complaining about him going into the van with “dirty feet” and objects being in the “wrong” place. People who suffer from OCD are not simply “clean freaks,” but suffer from a serious condition in which, according to the website LifeStance Health,

Causes people to have obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors that interrupt their lives. The thoughts typically feed into the obsessive behaviors. For example, a patient may truly believe that if they do not perform a specific small task a certain number of times, something terrible will happen. While the person with OCD may know that their thoughts are illogical, they do not know how to stop the obsession.

While the gender-politicized media argues about whether what police reports say or what one 9-1-1 call claims are more accurate, the truth about what eventually led to Petito’s remains being found in the Grand Teton National Park can be better ascertained in the Moab police video after their van was pulled over for speeding and suddenly swerving onto the side of the road. Scratches on Laundrie’s face and arm indicate that Petito was physically attacking him while he was driving, and during questioning we learned about Petito’s phobias, which we realize were potentially serious issues affecting the relationship between the two, especially when at constant close quarters.

Victim advocates and those who have only seen a photo of Petito in tears as she sits in a police SUV may form one picture in the minds, but the video clearly shows something completely different. Laundrie is clearly trying to downplay his fiancé’s behavior, while Petito simply appears to be someone with the emotional level of a child, which obviously can be difficult to deal with for another person. She was not acting “frightened,” nor did she make any claims of physical abuse. She was acting as if she was simply not in control of her emotions or behavior. She had a difficult time “explaining” what the “problem” was, which the officer speaking to her found frustrating, and since neither wanted the other detained, the officers let them go with only the “suggestion” that they have some “alone” time to clear their heads—or at least Petito to do so.

Apparently this cross-country road trip had been going on for a few months. People need to step back from their assumptions about this case—although that may be asking too much to ask of the media—and consider how reckless it was for two people—one who was suffering from a serious mental condition, and the other at least claiming to—to go on this long trip of “discovery” alone together. We can certainly say it would be difficult for Laundrie to tolerate day after day, maybe even hour after hour, Petito’s complaints and personal insults about his “hygiene.” Added to that her erratic, and apparently sometimes violent behavior, it was clear that what was “discovered” was that Petito was not the kind of person someone would want to spend the rest of his life with—although that likely came after-the-fact of what happened in the Grand Teton, the details of which we as yet do not know.

Laundrie returned to Florida without Petito, whose remains was found in the Grand Teton earlier this week; law enforcement states the cause of death as homicide. Laundrie did not speak to the media, and we are told he did not provide “helpful” information to investigators, apparently on the advice of his lawyer. Since then, Laundrie and his parents seemed to have taken a “camping trip,” their current whereabouts unknown, which of course only exacerbates his guilt in the eyes of others, which will likely be worse once we learn more from the coroner about Petito's manner of death.

But Laundrie’s actions since that “trip of discovery” can also be interpreted to indicate that he is angered by his life being destroyed by someone who was mentally unbalanced and everyone will accuse him of being at fault for her death, that no one will “understand” what he went through, and because of her his life is in ruins (of course, if the roles were reversed, there might be more “understanding” by the media, with some even providing a “defense”). That is probably what he is thinking, whether anyone wants to accept that or not, or thinks it is just being self-deceiving. In the end, what is inescapable is that this fateful “trip” was one that should never have taken place, and the people who knew of Petito’s mental health issues should have warned them against it; there was no treatment to be found on the road.