After a nearly week-long search, the missing adolescent child of a pair of tech pioneers has been located, and the adult male they were with has been arrested.
The Marin County Sheriff’s Office revealed in a press release that Mint Butterfield, 16, the offspring of Flickr cofounders Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield, and who uses they/them pronouns, had been safely located in San Francisco.
The teen was discovered, and we’re not kidding, inside a frightening white vehicle with a man ten years their senior. According to the sheriff’s office, Butterfield “voluntarily” fled with the man, whom investigators characterized as an “adult friend” who was later detained.
In addition to co-founding Flickr, the older Butterfield founded Slack in 2013 and served as its CEO until the end of 2022. While it appears that neither he nor Mint’s mother issued public statements while the child was gone, the news of the tech heir’s startling disappearance made headlines due to their parents’ position.
At-Risk Youth
As previously reported, Butterfield went missing from the residence they lived with their mother in the Napa Valley area, some 30 miles north of San Francisco, on or after Sunday, April 21. The following morning, Fake reported them missing and informed police that they were concerned since the adolescent had left a note.
Previous reports reportedly stated that the 16-year-old was “at risk” owing to a history of mental illness and substance misuse, and that he may have been on his way to San Francisco’s notorious Tenderloin district, which is known for its open-air drug markets.
According to the Marin County sheriff’s press release, the 26-year-old male Butterfield allegedly fled with was arrested and charged with “multiple criminal violations,” the specifics of which have not been revealed, after the youngster was discovered with him in his van. In an interview with the San Francisco Standard, a spokeswoman stated that authorities do not suspect abduction or foul play because Butterfield seemed to have departed with the man on his own accord.
“I don’t think there was foul play related to kidnapping or anything else,” Schermerhorn told the newspaper at the time, “which is what some people were saying is what happened.”
As horrifying as this story is, it’s undoubtedly a good thing Butterfield was discovered alive and somewhat healthy, especially given the other major van disappearance case that has made news in recent years.