The Slack co-founder’s missing child, Mint Butterfield, was found Saturday night in San Francisco with an adult man 10 years her senior and is now facing kidnapping charges.
The Marin County Sheriff’s Office says the 16-year-old boy, who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, was with Christopher “Kio” DiZefaro, 26, after he went missing from his home in Bolinas last week. It is said that it was discovered in
DiZefaro, who the sheriff described as an “adult friend,” was arrested and booked into the Marin County Jail on suspicion of child kidnapping and other violations.Arrest record Acquired by San Francisco Standards. He was being held on $50,000 bail.
The parking attendant was found with Mint in a white van on Eddy Street in the city’s notoriously dangerous Tenderloin neighborhood, according to booking records.
Minto, who was considered “at risk” after previously threatening suicide, was not injured.
They told detectives they voluntarily fled the Bolinas home and were later reunited with their families.
However, DiZefaro is suspected of encouraging the boy to run away, the Standard reported.
Mint’s parents, Stewart Butterfield (co-founder of instant messaging app Slack, which was later sold to Salesforce in 2020), and Katerina Fake, co-founder of photo-sharing app Flickr, said: She thanked the investigating authorities for bringing her child home.
“I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all the family, friends, volunteers and strangers who reached out to help and made this recovery possible,” said his parents, stepfather and fellow technology founder Jiri Engeström, quoted in the Standard and other sources. said in an email to local media. “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.”
Minto was last seen in Bolinas on the night of April 21, and was reported missing by his mother the next morning.
The boy is said to have left a note to his parents indicating he intended to run away before he was found with DiZefalo this week.
Authorities believed Minto was in the Tenderloin area because he was known to frequent the area before running away, police confirmed.
