Man sentenced to life in prison after conviction in 1991 cold case murder of Bucks County mother
Robert Atkins
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. - After a few days of a non-jury trial, justice was served for a Bucks County family in the 1991 murder of Joy Hibbs.
Bucks County officials say Robert Atkins, a 56-year-old man of Falls Township, was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder and arson. Friday, a judge sentenced him to life in prison.
Joy Hibbs, 35, was murdered 33 years ago, but it took police 31 years to solve the crime.
The case went cold until 2022, when Atkins, a former neighbor, was arrested for Hibb’s murder.
The 56-year-old man voluntarily turned himself in to Bucks County officials, after a "tireless" investigation by Bucks County Detectives and a recommendation by a grand jury.
Atkins was charged with one count of first degree murder, one count of second degree murder, two counts of robbery and seven counts of arson.
A grand jury was convened in January 2022, with Atkins’ ex-wife one of the first people to testify. In testimony, she stated Atkins came home early in the afternoon of April 19, 1991, covered in blood. He told her he stabbed someone and set their house on fire. He then told her to call out from work, get their kids together and they traveled to the Poconos. She told the grand jury he put his bloody clothes in the wash and took a shower.
Back in May 2022, officials stated a grand jury concluded that Atkins murdered 35-year-old Joy Hibbs on April 19, 1991, at her home in Croydon. She had been stabbed repeatedly and was likely asphyxiated.
Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub explained, during a press conference, Hibbs’ autopsy indicated there was no smoke in her lungs, indicating she had been murdered before the fire was set in her home.
The victim’s two children, Angie and David, who were 16 and 12 at the time of the incident, along with her husband Charlie, who is now in his 60s, all testified Monday, January 29 offering evidence as prosecutors tried to tie the murder to Atkins.
Trial begins in 1991 Bucks County cold case homicide
A trial has begun for a 56-year-old man charged with murdering Bucks County mother Joy Hibbs in April 1991 and trying to cover up the crime by setting her Bristol Township home on fire.
Hibbs’s husband took the stand and described coming home to find his house in flames. He first thought his daughter had died in the fire, then learned it was his wife.
A judge considered the evidence and decided Atkins was guilty as charged.