Missing teen of tech billionaire found alive and in back of van a week after vanishing as man arrested for kidnapping

29 April 2024, 9:44 | Updated: 29 April 2024, 10:07

A 16-year-old billionaire heiress has been found in the back of van a week after going missing.

Mint Butterfield is the only child of Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield and Flickr founder Caterina Fake - two of Silicon Valley's most well-known entrepreneurs.

She vanished from her mother's home in the wealthy Marin County, according to the San Francisco Standard.

The 16-year-old was thought to have been carrying a grey suitcase when last seen in Bolinas.

Police confirmed on Saturday that she had been found safe with an adult friend.

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The Marin Country Sheriff's Office said in a statement: "On April 27th, at approximately 2330 hours, 16-year-old missing person, Mint Butterfield was located safe in San Francisco."

Detectives learnt that the teen spent time with Christopher ‘Kio’ Dizefalo, 26, who was known to drive a white van.

They tracked the vehicle down and found Ms Butterfield inside.

Ms Butterfield was found uninjured and ran away from home voluntarily, the sheriff's office said.

Dizefalo was arrested and booked in the Marin County Jail, with his bail set at $50,000.

Ms Butterfield's father, Stewart Butterfield, is co-founder of the messaging app Slack which is worth $1.6 billion.

Slack was acquired by Salesforce in 2021 for $28 billion and Mr Butterfield left the company in 2022. 

Her mother is Caterina Fake, who created the imaging service Flickr with her then partner, Mr Butterfield.

They sold the image-hosting website to Yahoo in 2005.