Police in Washington state say they'll consider switching the case of 2-year-old Sky Metalwala from a missing-person search to a criminal investigation.
Authorities said the boy's mother, Julia Biryukova, could be investigated for child endangerment, KING-TV, Seattle, reported Monday.
Biryukova told police she left Sky alone in her car Nov. 6 in Bellevue after the car ran out of gas and she went to get help. When she returned an hour later, she said, the boy was gone.
Police remain frustrated with the information they're getting from the mother, Bellevue Police Maj. Mike Johnson said.
"But we understand that she's traumatized by this and devastated by the loss of her son," he said. "We're hopeful that if she can gather herself we can have that conversation that we need to have."
Sky's father, Solomon Metalwala, said he believes the boy's disappearance is related to a custody dispute between him and Biryukova.
Metalwala has previously said he believes she knows what happened to the boy, ABC News reported.
"She has had Sky for the last 10 months so I believe that she does know something," Metalwala told ABC's "Good Morning America."