Christopher “Kio” Dizefalo, San Francisco man arrested following the safe recovery of missing teen billionaire heiress, Mint Butterfield after fears they had taken up refuse in the Tenderloin district, known to be the epicenter of the fentanyl crises. Initial reports indicate teen child running away with older man since charged with suspicion of kidnapping.
The teen daughter of a Sillicon Valley billionaire has been found by police after disappearing over a week ago in San Francisco. The girl’s recovery comes following reports that she had voluntarily run away from home of her own accord.
Mint Butterfield, 16, is the child of two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield and Flickr founder Caterina Fake.
Dynamics between arrested older man and tech billionaire heiress not clear
The 16-year-old, who identifies as non binary and who uses they/them pronouns, vanished from their mother’s home in affluent Bolinas, on April 21, before Fake reported them missing the following day.
On, Saturday evening, Marin County Sheriff’s Office said they had located Butterfield safe in the California city after being found with an adult friend of hers.
Detectives say they learned that Butterfield was associating with a Christopher ‘Kio’ Dizefalo, 26, driving a white van. After tracking down the vehicle, officers found Butterfield inside. The van was found in the parking valet of San Francisco’s notorious Tenderloin district, considered the epicenter of drug abuse and prostitution.
In a released statement, Marin County Sheriff’s Office said Butterfield was found uninjured and that she had run away from home voluntarily.
Records show Dizefalo is jailed in Marin County on suspicion of multiple felonies, including child abduction, as well as a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. His bail is set at $50,000, the San Francisco Standard reported.
Not immediately clear were the dynamics between Dizefalo and the teen tech billionaire heiress. Dizefalo is suspected of coaxing the teen to run away according to the Standard.
Teen tech billionairess previously battled addiction
Police said earlier in the week that Mint was an ‘at-risk’ due to a reported previous threat of suicide.
They said she had left the home of her mom with a suitcase and left a note indicating she had left the residence. Police believed she was in the Tenderloin area.
The troubled teen, who is said of have battled addiction problems in the past, attends a private boarding school in the Napa Valley.
The Tenderloin is the center of the fentanyl crisis in San Francisco and is known for squalid conditions, homelessness, crime, drug trade, and prostitution.
Child of legacy hyper achievers
Mint’s father, Stewart Butterfield, is currently worth $1.6 billion. Slack was acquired by Salesforce in 2021 for $28 billion with Butterfield leaving the company in 2022.
Their mother is Caterina Fake, who started the created the imaging service Flickr with her then partner, Butterfield. They sold the image-hosting website to Yahoo in 2005.
Since then, Fake has served on the board of several startups and is known as an angel investor in the tech world.
Fake and Butterfield married in 2001 and remained together until 2007, when their child was born.
In 2021, Butterfield purchased a $31.7 million mansion in Aspen, Colorado. The property boasts a generous home gym, a home theatre, a games room, a 500-bottle wine cellar, a tasting room, six en-suite bedrooms and a three-car garage.
Butterfield also owns a $19 million home in San Francisco, which has seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms and sits in the posh Presidio Heights neighborhood.
Mint has since returned to the custody of their family.
