A search is underway in the San Francisco area for the 16-year-old daughter of billionaire Stewart Butterfield, the former CEO and co-founder of Slack.
Mint Butterfield, who uses they/them pronouns, is “believed to be in the Tenderloin” district of San Francisco, a spot that has become notorious for drug use and homelessness in recent years. Police said the teen had been known to frequent the area prior to their disappearance over the weekend.
Mint was last seen in Bolinas on Sunday around 10 p.m., according to a notice from the Marin County Sheriff’s Office. They were wearing a black sweatshirt, flannel pajama pants, and black boots at the time, and may have been carrying a gray suitcase.
The teen’s mother, Caterina Fake, woke Monday to find Mint had not returned home and reported her missing the same morning, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Fake co-founded the photo service Flickr with Butterfield in 2004, and they sold it to Yahoo the following year for an estimated $30 million.
The couple was reportedly married from 2001 to 2007. After their split, Butterfield went on to develop Slack, now a workplace messaging staple, in 2009. The company was sold to Salesforce in July 2021 for $27.7 billion.
According to Forbes, Butterfield’s net worth is around $1.6 billion.
Authorities at this time believe Mint — the ex-couple’s only child — to be a runaway. The teen, who stands at around 5’0 and weighs approximately 100 lbs., is described as having “brown/reddish curly hair” and eyebrow piercings.
Anyone with information regarding Mint’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Marin County Sheriff’s Office.
