California police on Wednesday arrested a 39-year-old man accused of stabbing a woman to death and posting a video of her dying moments to Facebook.
Mark Mechikoff has been charged with first degree murder and is being held without bond, according to jail records.
San Mateo Police said the investigation began when deputies in Nye County, Nevada, told them that they’d been called by someone who reported witnessing and stabbing on Facebook. The witness provided the name a phone number of the person who posted the video.
Nye County deputies said the “pinged” phone number and found that it appeared to originate in a large apartment complex on 37th Avenue in San Mateo.
“Without an apartment number and with the variance of the ping accuracy, SMPD officers saturated the area and initiated a door-to-door canvass of the complex to attempt to locate the possible victim and/or suspect,” police said.
After a three-hour search, officers found “a possible connection” and then located the body of a woman in an apartment on 36th Avenue, still part of the same complex.
The suspect was no longer on the scene, but officers located him about two hours later and took him into custody without incident in San Jose, nearly 40 miles away.
According to The Mercury News, Mechikoff and the victim had known one another for about a year, but police are still investigating the nature of their relationship.
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“While the motive for stabbing the victim is still under investigation, we do know Mechikoff mercilessly filmed the last moments of the victim’s life and posted the video to Facebook, then fled the area,” the department said.
The News reported that Mechikoff has an extensive criminal record across multiple states, including 2020 battery conviction in Florida. In that case, Mechikoff threw a drink on a woman in a restaurant in August 2019 and then met her back at their apartment later, the Gainesville Sun reported. There, he punched her in the face and then pulled out a knife — which the Sun said he always carried with him — and threatened to “end her.”
Mechikoff is due in court again on Friday, jail records said.
Police ask anyone with information or security footage related to the case to contact Detective Sergeant Dave Manion at (650) 522-7660 or dmanion@cityofsanmateo.org. Anonymous tips can be submitted to or by calling (650) 522-7676.
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[Featured image: Mark Mechikoff’s 2019 mug shot/Alachua County Sheriff’s Office]
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