Missing Teen of Slack Co-Founder Found Safe in a San Francisco Van; Two Adults Charged With Child Abduction
Mint Butterfield was 16, missing for six days, and found in a white van in San Francisco’s Tenderloin a little after 11:30 p.m. on April 27, 2024. The Marin County Sheriff’s Office said the teenager was uninjured. Two adults were charged with child abduction anyway, because California does not let a minor «consent» their way into an adult’s van.
Mint is the child of Stewart Butterfield, who co-founded Slack, and Caterina Fake, who co-founded Flickr. Their stepfather is Jyri Engeström, another tech founder. Mint uses they/them pronouns. They left the family’s house in Bolinas on the night of April 21 with a note. The sheriff classified them as a voluntary missing person and as «at risk,» in part because of earlier threats of self-harm. Investigators believed they had gone to the Tenderloin, a neighborhood the city has spent years failing to make less of an open-air market for fentanyl.
In the van with Mint was Christopher «Kio» Dizefalo, 26, described by the sheriff as an «adult friend» suspected of talking the teenager into leaving. A second adult, Sarah Atkins, who reportedly owned the van and was described as Dizefalo’s sometime girlfriend, was not there when deputies arrived. The Marin County District Attorney charged both with child abduction and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Dizefalo was also booked on suspicion of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor and held in Marin County Jail on $50,000 bail. A judge ordered him to stay away from Mint. A warrant went out for Atkins.
Voluntary Is Not Legal
Mint told investigators they left home on their own. A sheriff’s spokesman said there was no classic kidnapping and described a «quasi-dating relationship.» That is the grooming script, not a defense. Under California law a 16-year-old cannot sign off on disappearing into a van with a 26-year-old. The family’s statement to the San Francisco Standard thanked «the seasoned law enforcement officers who understand the very real threat of predators who use the allure of drugs to groom teenagers.»
Money and a famous last name got this search on television. The mechanics are the same ones The AEGIS Alliance has documented for years: adults who know how to find a vulnerable kid, a neighborhood where that is easy, and a legal system that still has to argue over whether «they wanted to go» is an answer. See the older files on a global abuse network hiding in plain sight and a Disney executive charged with child sex abuse. More of this beat lives in Crime News.
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