--- title: "Man Arrested After Tech Billionaires’ Missing Teen Child Was Found in His Van" description: "Mint Butterfield, the missing teenage child of a pair of tech founders, has been found — and the adult man they were with has been arrested." date: "2024-04-29" modified: "2024-04-29" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/tech-founders-missing-teen-found" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "slack" - "tech industry" - "the digest" - "youth" --- # Man Arrested After Tech Billionaires’ Missing Teen Child Was Found in His Van ![Mint Butterfield, the missing teenage child of a pair of tech founders, has been found — and the adult man they were with has been arrested.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Runaway After a nearly weeklong search, the missing teenage child of a pair of tech founders has been found — and the adult man they were with has been arrested. In a [press release](), the Marin County Sherriff's Office announced that the 16-year-old Mint Butterfield — the offspring of Flickr cofounders Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield, and who goes by they/them pronouns — had been located safely in San Francisco. The teen was found, and we're not making this up, inside a [creepy white van]() with a man 10 years their senior. According to the sheriff's office, Butterfield had "voluntarily" run away with the man, who authorities described as an "adult friend" that has since been arrested. Along with cofounding Flickr, the elder Butterfield also started Slack in 2013 and was the company's CEO [until the end of 2022](). While it appears that neither he nor Mint's mother gave public statements while the child was missing, the news of the tech heir's shocking disappearance [garnered headlines]() due to their parents' status. ## At-Risk Youth As [prior reports]() indicated, Butterfield went missing from the house they shared with their mother in the Napa Valley area, about 30 miles north of San Francisco, on or after the night of Sunday, April 21. The next morning, Fake reported them missing and told police they were concerned because the teen left a note. Those previous reports also noted that the 16-year-old was considered "at risk" due to a history of mental illness and substance abuse, and may have been headed for San Francisco's notorious Tenderloin district, which is known to be an open-air drug market. The 26-year-old man that Butterfield allegedly ran away with was, as the Marin County sheriff's press release notes, arrested and booked on "multiple criminal violations," specifics about which have not been revealed, after the teen was found with him in his van. In an interview with the [*San Francisco Standard*](), a spokesperson said detectives don't suspect abduction or foul play because it appears that Butterfield left with the man of their own will. "I don’t think there was foul play related to kidnapping or anything else," Schermerhorn told the newspaper, "which is what some people were saying is what happened." As terrifying as this tale is, it's undeniably a good thing that Butterfield was found alive and relatively well — especially considering the other big [van disappearance]() story that made headlines in recent years. **More on tech tragedy:** [*Tech CEO Plunges to Death Trying to Make Grand Entrance at Company Party*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()