Police gather tips in Wash. boy’s disappearance

SEATTLE (AP) — Police in Bellevue, Wash., set up a kind of roadblock Sunday to talk to people passing the site where a missing toddler was last seen.

Police Maj. Mike Johnson told a news conference that officers talked to more than 20 people and gathered about a dozen new tips Sunday morning.

It’s been a week since Julia Biryukova (BEER-you-kovah) says her 2-year-old son, Sky Metalwala (metal-WALLA), disappeared from her car. Police have searched the area and Biryukova’s home and car, but haven’t found the boy.

Johnson says officers also spent time at Biryukova’s apartment complex Sunday hoping to find someone who remembers something about last weekend that may help them find Sky.

Bellevue police are also talking to authorities in other cities to get advice about how they handled similar cases.

Police say Biryukova told them she was taking Sky to a hospital when the car stopped, so she left him alone in the unlocked vehicle and took his 4-year-old sister to go for gas. When she returned an hour later, she says, the boy was gone.