Mint Butterfield, child of tech titans Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield, vanished in San Francisco. Grace Kahng describes the desperate race against time to find them.
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty Images/Courtesy of Caterina Fake and Jyri EngeströmMint comes from the closest thing tech has to royalty. Mint, who identifies as non-binary and who used they/them pronouns, is the only child of a divorcedpower couple, Caterina Fake and billionaire Stewart Butterfield . Mint has also been raised by Fake’s partner, Jyri Engeström , with whom Fake has been in a relationship with since Mint was 3.
I deal with pimps, johns, lost girls, dead girls, and serial killers. As an investigative journalist with 30 years in the trenches exposing human trafficking and hunting murderers, “Sociopaths R Us” is my motto. Mothers ask for help extracting their daughters from Romeo pimps—sex traffickers who operate by trying to make young girls or boys fall in love with them.A light rain is falling, and my smart car is at 7 percent battery. Before I get to Mint’s home I call insiders I trust. “It’s a shit show, Grace, don’t get involved. These people have hired a bunch of goons, PIs, and who-knows-what running around messing things up for patrol on the ground. It’s not going to end well.” Yikes.
Every year 800,000 kids go missing and most are taken by men, whether they are family members or strangers. When a child turns up dead, most have been killed within the first 24 hours. This statistic is seared into every mother’s brain, which is why every second counts. At this point of Mint’s disappearance, something has gone awry. Based on what I am told by Mint’s exasperated family, it seems some officers in Marin County are investigating the family instead of looking for Mint.
Mint Butterfield, center, with their mother Caterina Fake, right, and stepfather Jyri Engeström in 2017.I spoke to friends of Mint’s whose parents asked she remain anonymous, who was with Mint when they met Dizefalo and watched the evolution of their friendship. When I asked about the idea being perpetuated in the media that the 16-year-old was a drug addict, Engeström, who helped raise Mint from age 3, scoffed and said Mint had no involvement with hard drugs before meeting Kio.
I advise that the only way to get Mint back is to allow me to investigate all the tips, coordinate the search, and interface directly with detectives. Relieved, Caterina starts texting madly to tell all the well-intentioned, well-connected contacts to call off all their hired guns. Just then her phone rings. It is someone from one of the volunteer organizations out looking for Mint. They have stopped a van that tipsters had identified as Kio’s means of transportation.11:47 p.m.
As the searchers talked to Kio, I told one of them to try and place the jacket with the tracking device in the van without causing suspicion. “Give them the jacket and play it cool.”— 'Searcher' Nico Equally important is creating a precise timeline for all investigators to bring them up to speed. I text the lead detective, Lt. Megan Gnoss of Marin County. Caterina contacts all the police agencies to express her intent to fully cooperate.
“I was getting my coffee and I saw what I thought was an underage girl lean over,” Mara told me. “She was barely wearing anything at all. Shorts and a tank top and black boots. She definitely looked young. First she vomited blood and then it was cloudy and then it was white.” “I know Kio and he is a bad guy,” says D. Atkins is also Dizefalo’s sometime girlfriend. D says Dizefalo and Atkins are “drug bonded” and fentanyl addicts. “We all OD’d a bunch of times.” Atkins confirms to me what D has said as a true representation of her experience.
For me, D’s story about Atkins’ exploitation is significant because Dizefalo’s violent past acts help prove child endangerment. I know that sharing this with investigators will show that Mint may not be “voluntarily missing,” but a potential target of exploitation. Officers take Dizefalo and Atkins into custody. They fling open all the van doors. It appears empty. The van is surprisingly neat and tidy. There is a large mattress in the back sleeping area. Most officers would likely just shut the van doors but these responders are seasoned in the art of trafficking. Mint Butterfield is found under the mattress in the back of the van. Capt.
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