Do you know who murdered Jackie Robinson? African-American / Black woman Jackie Robinson, age 30, was at home in her Anchorage apartment at 5601 Taku Drive when, in the early hours of December 3, 1998, someone hurled an accelerant through a back window and turned the unit into an inferno. Fire crews raced to the scene, but the blaze spread fast and violently. Investigators determined the fire had been deliberately set, and the case was immediately treated as an arson that left a quiet neighborhood rattled by the speed and ferocity of
the flames.
Inside that burning apartment, Jackie Robinson—female, 30—was pulled from catastrophic injuries. Another resident, Julius Dubouse, perished at the scene as the apartment was engulfed, underscoring how swiftly the attack unfolded and how little chance there was for anyone inside to escape. Robinson survived the initial onslaught long enough to be transported for advanced care, while the arson scene cooled to a blackened shell that told investigators only that the fire had been fed and meant to kill.
Days later, Robinson was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, the regional trauma center for the Pacific Northwest. Despite intensive treatment, she succumbed to her injuries; community summaries tied to the case report that she died on December 8, 1998, following the transfer from Anchorage. The fire's timeline—ignition on December 3, medevac on December 8, and her death that same day—became the stark chronology of a targeted attack that claimed a young woman's life across state lines.
No arrests have been announced. Anchorage authorities and Crime Stoppers have continued to appeal for information, describing the accelerant thrown through the window and asking for the public's help in identifying whoever set the fatal blaze. The case remains unsolved, the arsonist or arsonists unknown, and the questions of motive and identity still hanging over a crime that began with the shattering of glass and ended with the death of a 30-year-old woman far from home.
