16-year-old daughter of billionaire, Stewart Butterfield reported missing

The teenage daughter of Stewart Butterfield, co-founder of Slack and billionaire, has gone missing, sparking fears that she might be in one of San Francisco’s most dangerous neighborhoods.

Mint Butterfield, 16, was last seen around 10 pm on Sunday in Bolinas, California, and her disappearance was reported by her mother, Caterina Fake, the following morning.

Fake, who co-founded Flickr, reported her daughter missing on Monday, according to the San Francisco Standard. Mint had been living with Fake and attending a private boarding school in the Napa area at the time of her disappearance, as stated by the sheriff’s office.

“Mint was last seen wearing a black sweatshirt, flannel pajama pants, and black boots, sheriff’s officials said. They were also possibly carrying a gray suitcase,” Suarez wrote in a statement.

However, authorities believe that the 5-foot-tall teenager, described as having curly brown-red hair and pierced eyebrows, may have fled to Tenderloin, notorious for its violent crimes, widespread homelessness, and open-air drug trade in downtown San Francisco.

The outlet also mentioned Mint’s alleged history of substance abuse and her previous visits to Tenderloin.

“Please contact Marin County Sheriff’s Office with any information on their whereabouts,” Suarez wrote.

According to the San Francisco Standard, due to her previous problems, Mint is thought to be familiar with the Tenderloin-district. 

Police have yet to say whether she went there voluntarily on this occasion or if she has been kidnapped. 

The Tenderloin is the center of the fentanyl crisis in San Francisco.

Mint’s father, Butterfield, is co-founder of the messaging app Slack and is currently worth $1.6 billion. Slack was acquired by Salesforce in 2021 for $28 billion and Butterfield left the company in 2022. 

Her mother is Caterina Fake, who started the created the imaging service Flickr with her then partner, Butterfield. They sold the image-hosting website to Yahoo in 2005. 

Since then, Fake has served on the board of several startups and is known as an angel investor in the tech world. 

Fake and Butterfield married in 2001 and remained together until 2007, when their daughter was born.

Butterfield 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. 

At the time of her disappearance, Mint was living with her mother and attending a private boarding school in the Napa area, according to the sheriff’s office.