Arrest warrant issued for 2nd suspect in Mint Butterfield disappearance

Angle down iconAn icon in the shape of an angle pointing down. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images, Marin County Sheriff's Office, Andrew Toth/Getty Images for Vanity Fair

• An arrest warrant has been issued for a second suspect in the Mint Butterfield case.
• At a hearing Wednesday, the judge ordered the first suspect not to contact the 16-year-old.
• Butterfield was found after going missing for six days in San Francisco.

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A second person is facing charges over the disappearance of Mint Butterfield, the teen child of two tech founders.

Butterfield, 16, went missing for six days before being found alive in the back of a white van in San Francisco's Tenderloin district on Saturday.

Butterfield is the only child of Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield, who cofounded Flickr together in 2004. Stewart Butterfield also cofounded Slack and is worth about $1.6 billion, according to Forbes.

A street view of San Francisco's Tenderloin district. Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

The van belonged to Christopher "Kio" Dizefalo, 26, a San Francisco parking valet described as an "adult friend" of Butterfield's in a press release from the Marin County Sheriff's Office.

But later, when Dizefalo was charged, prosecutors named a second person, a woman named Sarah Atkins.

Both were charged with child abduction and the lesser count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. When Butterfield was missing, authorities said they believed the teen left home willingly.

(The charge doesn't necessarily contradict that — it's still possible to meet the definition of abduction if the child is willing.)

The sheriff's office said Dizefalo was also arrested in connection with a charge of unlawful sexual intercourse and held in Marin County Jail.

Dizefalo and Butterfield "had some sort of a quasi-dating relationship," the Marin County Sheriff's Office told The New York Post.

Adam Schermerhorn, a representative for the sheriff's office, told The San Francisco Standard that Atkins was in her late 20s. There's little other information available about her alleged involvement or relationship with Butterfield.

Dizefalo was taken into custody shortly after Butterfield was discovered by police, and his bail was set at $50,000.

Schermerhorn told the Standard that Atkins wasn't there when Butterfield and Dizefalo were found.

At the hearing, Dizefalo's lawyer asked to defer his arraignment to Friday. The judge agreed and issued a protective order that bars Dizefalo from contacting Butterfield or coming within 100 yards of them or their home.

Dizefalo, who had a tattoo of a scythe on his face and appeared in court in a yellow jumpsuit over a pink long-sleeve shirt, said he understood the order.

Atkins, unlike Dizefalo, is not in custody.

At a hearing Wednesday, a prosecutor told Judge Kelly Simmons that there was a warrant for Atkins' arrest.

Stewart Butterfield, Mint's father, attended the hearing remotely via Zoom, but didn't speak.

Butterfield's parents thanked "family, friends, volunteers and strangers who called in tips and made this recovery possible" in a joint statement obtained by the Standard.

"We especially want to thank the seasoned law enforcement officers who understand the very real threat of predators who use the allure of drugs to groom teenagers," they added.