Billionaire Slack heiress Mint Butterfield underwent an alarming change before the teen was found underneath a mattress after a desperate search by her tech tycoon parents.
The only child of Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake and Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield, the 16-year-old made headlines when she went vanished last month.
Mint, who uses they/them pronouns, disappeared from Fake’s weekend home in affluent Bolinas, northwest of San Francisco, on April 22.
The mother had brought Mint to the weekend home so they could get away from a 26-year-old man – Christopher Dizefalo- who goes by Kio and has now been arrested for her disappearance.
Fake told The Daily Beast that Mint’s downward spiral began when she turned 16 and started going to punk and emo clubs in the East Bay.
Mint Butterfield is the only child of Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake and Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield, who are divorced
They underwent an alarming change before being found underneath a mattress after a desperate search
Fake had brought Mint to their weekend home so they could get away from a 26-year-old man who has has now been arrested for her disappearance
Mint met Dizefalo at a club in Oakland, and while they saw something ‘magical’ in him, one of their friends said they had instead detected something ‘disgusting and creepy.’
According to their family, the heiress did not have drug problems until they met Dizefalo, who is said to be a fentanyl addict.
The teen had also only had romantic relationships with girls before meeting Dizefalo.
Fake told The Daily Beast: ‘My child became a different person overnight. Starting last fall they became a person I didn’t recognize. And I didn’t know what was happening and I didn’t understand it. Mint is a teenager. Teens are full of empathy and love and hormones.’
Fake, who is divorced from Mint’s father, said she went into panic mode when she realized the teen was missing, and ran a half mile down the street searching for them, she told The Daily Beast. Mint left their mom a note saying they loved them.
The mother said that she gave Kio’s phone number to police when she reported Mint missing, and was displeased when the Marin County Sheriff’s Office spoke to the media about the case.
At the time, she said: ‘Why aren’t the police doing anything? I have given them Kio’s name and his phone number. Why aren’t they tracking his phone?’
Police initially classified Mint as ‘voluntarily missing’ as they believed she left the home on her own, which angered her mother who thought her child was in danger.
Christopher ‘Kio’ Dizefalo, seen here, was arrested and booked in the Marin County Jail, with bail set at $50,000.
According to their family, the heiress did not have drug problems until they met Dizefalo, who is said to be a fentanyl addict
Within days of going missing, Mint was seen outside an Oakland home throwing up blood on the sidewalk, outside a parked van. They were wearing just shorts, a tank top and black boots.
A week after they were reported missing, police found the van Dizefalo had been using on its way to the Tenderloin District and arrested him. Police also arrested the 21-year-old woman who owned the van, Sarah Atkins.
The Tenderloin is the center of the fentanyl crisis in San Francisco and is known for squalid conditions, homelessness, crime, drug trade, and prostitution.
According to the Daily Beast, Atkins has suffered abuse by Dizefalo, who she financially supports.
Police did not initially realize that Mint was also in the van, but then discovered her underneath a mattress that was in the back.
In a statement, Marin County Sheriff’s Office said Butterfield was found uninjured and that she 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.
Fake is now in a relationship with Jaiku co-founder, Jyri Engestrom
Stewart Butterfield speaks at his company’s Frontiers conference at Pier 27 & 29 on April 24, 2019, in San Francisco
Atkins has also been charged with kidnapping, but Fake told The Daily Beast she believes Atkins is also a victim of Dizefalo.
Fake and Butterfield married in 2001 and remained together until 2007, when their child was born.
Fake, who started the created the imaging service Flickr with her then partner, Butterfield. They sold the image-hosting website to Yahoo in 2005.
Stewart Butterfield, is currently worth $1.6 billion. Slack was acquired by Salesforce in 2021 for $28 billion and Butterfield left the company in 2022.
He has since married Jen Rubio, co-founder of Away – an American luggage and travel accessories brand, and the pair have two young children together.
Fake is now in a relationship with Jaiku co-founder, Jyri Engestrom, and the couple share three children between them.
In 2021, Butterfield purchased a $31.7 million mansion in Aspen, Colorado. The residence sprawls over a five-acre estate overlooking the Castle Creek Valley.
The property boasts a generous home gym, a home theatre, a games room, a 500-bottle wine cellar, a tasting room, six en-suite bedrooms and a three-car garage.
Butterfield also owns a $19 million home in San Francisco, which has seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms and sits in the posh Presidio Heights neighborhood.