Woman stabbed to death in San Mateo apartment; suspect arrested after posting video on Facebook
SAN MATEO, Calif. - A man arrested in a deadly stabbing in San Mateo Wednesday is accused of posting video of the crime on Facebook.
Mark Mechikoff, 39, of Pacifica, is in jail and was booked on a homicide charge, San Mateo Police Department said Thursday.
"This was an isolated and targeted crime," Officer Jerami Surratt said. "I think everyone would agree it’s pretty hideous."
Video of the female victim’s final moments began appearing in some Facebook feeds, including Ryan Lenahan’s.
"There was a person bleeding out, [he was] standing over the person, repeating Bible verses and other types of incoherent nonsense," Lenahan said.
The victim has not yet been identified. Police said she and Mechikoff knew one another but were still investigating their relationship.
Lenahan told KTVU he grew up with Mechikoff and was disturbed when he viewed the video. He said he left a comment on this video calling the suspect "sick" and "I hope you’re in custody."
Two hours later, Lenahan said he got a video call from Mechikoff.
"He was just talking all sorts of babble, and he appeared to be in the same location as the crime took place," Lenahan said.
Afterwards, Lenahan said he immediately reported the call and the video to local police.
Others reported the Facebook posts too, including someone in Nye County, Nevada, Wednesday where sheriff’s detectives pinged the phone that posted the video, San Mateo police said.
Investigators were told the videos were taken at a large apartment complex in the 200 block of 37th Ave. in San Mateo, right across the street from a hospital.
"We dispatched a bunch of officers to that area due to the severity of the crime," Surratt said. "We started going door-to-door looking for the possible victim."
It took three hours, but officers found a woman had been killed inside one of the units.
The word spread quickly through the complex, frightening neighbors.
"It’s a lot to know that you live here where somebody got murdered," one neighbor said. "It’s not easy being that neighbor."
Investigators continued to trace the suspect’s cell phone and tracked it to San Jose where Mechikoff was found in a car before being arrested, police said.
Court records and online searches show Mechikoff has an extensive criminal past. A news report from 2019 incident in Florida said he pulled out a knife on a woman, according to the Gainesville Sun.
In the San Mateo incident, a motive has not been released.
Facebook’s parent company, Meta, removed the suspect’s video and profile from its platform. It did not immediately respond to KTVU’s request for comment.
"This is just sad all the way around that this person lost their life and had to deal with violence in their final moments," Lenahan said.
Brooks Jarosz is an investigative reporter for KTVU. Email him at brooks.jarosz@fox.com and follow him on Facebook and Twitter @BrooksKTVU