- Mint Butterfield, 16, was found after being missing for six days.
- Butterfield was found inside a 26-year-old man’s van.
- Butterfield’s parents co-founded Flickr, and their father later co-founded Slack.
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A 26-year-old man has been arrested after two children of a tech tycoon were found in the back seat of a van.
Mint Butterfield, 16, was missing for six days before being found by police in San Francisco on Saturday.
Butterfield, who uses they/them pronouns, is the child of two tech founders. Their parents, Katerina Fake and Stewart Butterfield, co-founded Flickr in 2004, and Stewart Butterfield later co-founded Slack.
Their disappearance sparked a massive search operation in San Francisco’s Tenderloin area, known for homelessness, crime and drugs.
Police had previously warned that the boy’s safety was at risk as he had previously received suicide threats.
Sources said Butterfield was found safe and sound in the back seat of Christopher “Kio” DiZefaro’s white van in San Francisco on Saturday. press release Issued by the Marin County Sheriff’s Office.
Dizefalo is described in a press release as Butterfield’s “adult friend.” He was arrested in connection with “multiple criminal offenses” and booked into the Marin County Jail, with bail set at $50,000, according to a press release.
Police did not specify the charges, but the press release added that the boy “voluntarily” ran away from home.
However, according to the records obtained, San Francisco standardDiZefaro is being held on suspicion of child abduction and a misdemeanor charge of “contributing to the delinquency of a minor.”
Adam Schermerhorn, a representative for the Marin County Sheriff’s Office, previously said. people There was no reason to believe that “foul play” or “criminal activity” was involved in Butterfield’s disappearance.
“This is based on the statements that were made and some of the research that our detectives were able to uncover,” Schermerhorn told the Standard after DiZepfalo’s arrest.
“I don’t think there was any foul play involved in the kidnapping or anything like that. Some people claim that’s what happened,” he added.
The Marin County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for comment. Dizefalo does not currently have an attorney listed.
In a joint statement sent to the press, Butterfield’s parents and stepfather, Jiri Engeström, said they would like to thank the family, friends, volunteers and strangers who reached out for help and made this recovery possible, according to the Standard newspaper. He expressed his gratitude to them.
“We especially want to thank our experienced law enforcement officers who understand the real threat of predators who use the lure of drugs to groom teenagers,” they added.
Butterfield’s parents, Stewart Butterfield and Katerina Fake, were married from 2001 to 2007. new york post report.
The two co-founded Flickr in 2004 and sold the company to Yahoo in 2005 for an estimated $30 million, the outlet said.
Stewart Butterfield co-founded Slack with Cal Henderson in 2013. In December 2022, he I left the company.
He is worth an estimated $1.6 billion, according to forbes.