Tech billionaire’s missing child found ‘in the back of a white van’
Marin County Sheriff's Office said Mint was found uninjured and had run away from home voluntarily.
The teenage child of a tech billionaire who went missing in a notoriously dangerous part of San Francisco has been found.
Mint Butterfield, the 16-year-old child of Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield, went missing in the Tenderloin neighbourhood last Sunday.
Mint, who uses they/them pronouns, was thought to have been carrying a grey suitcase when last seen in Bolinas, a community on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge from the main city.
Police said on Saturday evening that they had found Mint safe in San Francisco with an adult friend.
Detectives learned they were associating with Christopher ‘Kio’ Dizefalo, 26, who was known to drive a white van, and after tracking down the vehicle they found Mint inside.
Marin County Sheriff’s Office said Mint was found uninjured and 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 ‘at-risk’ due to a reported previous threat of suicide, MailOnline reports.
They are the only child of Stewart Butterfield and Flickr founder Caterina Fake. The couple divorced in 2007 and have both since remarried and had more children with their new spouses.
The Tenderloin is the center of the fentanyl crisis in San Francisco and is known for squalid conditions, homelessness, crime, drug trade, and prostitution.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.