In the pre-dawn hours of October 6, 2023, 36-year-old male Jacob Wodkowski was found in Wasilla with a gunshot wound to the head after Alaska State Troopers responded to a report of an assault. He was rushed to an Anchorage-area hospital in critical condition, where he would remain under intensive medical care. Troopers identified a 38-year-old Wasilla resident, Dustin Peters, as a person of interest and warned the public that he was armed and dangerous while a manhunt unfolded across the
Mat-Su Valley. Peters was located the next day and taken into custody on an outstanding warrant along with fresh charges for weapons misconduct, controlled substances, and theft.
Wodkowski's condition never truly stabilized. After months of treatment tied to the head wound, he died on January 24, 2024. An autopsy by the State Medical Examiner determined that the gunshot injury sustained on October 6 ultimately caused his death. Although some memorial listings mark October 6, 2023, as the incident date associated with his loss, they also record his death as occurring in late January 2024, aligning with the medical examiner's conclusion.
Investigators from the Alaska Bureau of Investigation's South Central Major Crimes Unit charged Dustin Peters on February 13, 2024, with one count of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder in connection with Wodkowski's death. By that point, Peters had remained in state custody since his October 7 arrest. Subsequent reporting summarized the case: the shooting occurred on October 6 in Wasilla, Wodkowski—age 36—was transported to Anchorage with life-threatening injuries, and the charges followed after he succumbed months later.
Contemporaneous coverage noted that troopers had received a tip leading to Peters' capture during the initial manhunt. A later summary, drawn from a sworn affidavit referenced in news accounts, described the shooting as taking place in the garage of a residence connected to the men, reinforcing the view of a targeted attack rather than a random encounter. The narrative that emerges—swift identification and arrest, a long hospitalization, and charges upgraded to murder after the autopsy—tracks the official sequence of events from October 2023 through February 2024.
