Photo: Marin County Sheriff's Office
The man accused of luring away Mint Butterfield, the 16-year-old child of billionaire Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield and Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake, faces child sex charges in relation to the incident.
Christopher 'Kio' Dizefalo, 26, a parking valet in San Francisco, was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and child stealing, which differs from kidnapping when the victim leaves home willingly, but is enticed or coerced by a nefarious actor with intentions of taking them away from legal guardian(s), the New York Post reported.
Dizefalo was initially accused of influencing and sexually assaulting Mint, who identifies as non-binary, during what was alleged to be a "quasi dating" relationship, the Post reported. The two were located last Saturday (April 27) in the notorious Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco days after disappearing from their Bolinas home last week, the Marin County Sheriff's Office announced.
Butterfield's parents, as well as their stepfather Jyri Engeström, issued a statement publicly thanking the Marin County Sheriff's Office ad San Francisco Police Department for their efforts in locating the teenager.
"A heartfelt thanks to all the family, friends, volunteers and strangers who called in tips and made this recovery possible," the family said in an email. "We especially want to thank the seasoned law enforcement officers who understand the very real threat of predators who use the allure of drugs to groom teenagers."
Butterfield was suspected to have run away to Tenderloin, which has the highest levels of crime and homelessness in the city, as well as an open-air drug market, prior to being located given their reported history of substance abuse and having frequented the area in the past, the San Francisco Standard previously reported.
Stewart Butterfield co-founded the popular messaging app Slack in 2013, but departed after it was sold to Salesforce for $28 billion in 2021 and is reported by Forbes to have a net worth of $1.6 billion. Fake founded the imaging service Flickr with her ex-husband and sold the company to Yahoo! for an estimated $30 million in 2004.
The couple was married in 2001, but divorced in 2007, the same year Mint, their only shared child, was born. Stewart Butterfield remarried Away co-founder and CEO Jennifer Rubio in 2020 and relocated to Aspen in 2021, while also owning multiple owns in New York.