The billionaire parents of Mint Butterfield, 16, have lashed out at the ‘predator’ who allegedly coaxed their daughter into disappearing in San Francisco last week.
Butterfield, who was found by police on Saturday evening, is the only daughter of two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield and Flickr founder Caterina Fake.
In an email to the press, Butterfield and Fake condemned 26-year-old Christopher ‘Kio’ Dizefalo, who has been charged with abducting their daughter.
The parents wrote: ‘We especially want to thank the seasoned law enforcement officers who understand the very real threat of predators who use the allure of drugs to groom teenagers.’
Mint, who uses they/them pronouns, is reported to have battled addiction issues in the past.
Mint Butterfield, the 16-year-old child of billionaire tech CEO Stewart Butterfield, was found on Saturday night
Christopher ‘Kio’ Dizefalo, seen here, was arrested and booked in the Marin County Jail, with bail set at $50,000.
The 16-year-old 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 Butterfield was associating with a Christopher ‘Kio’ Dizefalo, 26, who was known to drive a white van.
After tracking down the vehicle, officers found Butterfield inside the van with Dizefalo.
In a statement, Marin County Sheriff’s Office said Butterfield was found uninjured and that she had run away from home voluntarily.
After Dizefalo was interviewed by detectives, he was arrested and booked in the Marin County Jail, with bail set at $50,000.
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.
Mint’s father, Stewart Butterfield, is currently worth $1.6 billion. Slack was acquired by Salesforce in 2021 for $28 billion and Butterfield left 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.