Guilty Verdict In Croydon Mother's Death After 32 Years

LOWER BUCKS COUNTY, PA —A Bucks County jury has found a Bristol Township guilty Thursday of killing a Croydon mother of two more than 30 years after her death, authorities said.

The four-day trial of Robert Atkins, 57, of Fairless Hills, concluded with Bucks County Common Pleas Judge Wallace Bateman Jr. finding him guilty in the death of his neighbor Joy Hibbs, a 35-year-old married mother of two and medical assistant, the Bucks County District Attorney's Office.

Atkins was facing first-and-second-degree murder, arson, burglary, and robbery charges in the trial. He was found guilty of first-degree murder and two counts of arson by the judge.

Hibbs' husband, Charlie, 68, and the couple’s children, Angie, and David, and family and friends who have attended the trial since it started Monday were in the Bucks County courtroom when the verdict was read Thursday afternoon. They embraced and cried, the Bucks County Courier Times reported.

Hibbs was found dead inside her home on April 19, 1991. Police determined that she had been murdered and the house intentionally set on fire.

People magazine wrote in July 2022 about the mother of two. It took authorities 31 years to charge a suspect.

Atkins was charged in May 2022 following a grand jury investigation. Hibbs was stabbed and strangled to death in her home in 1991.

According to prosecutors, Atkins was the neighbor of Hibbs and her husband, Charlie; he sold marijuana to the couple while he lived on Spencer Drive.

An argument involving money led to Atkins strangling Hibbs with a power cord before he stabbed her five times, according to prosecutors. He then set fire to the house, which destroyed much of the evidence of the crime.

Atkins had been long thought to be responsible for the crime, but there was little evidence linking him to it.

The initial investigation by the Bristol Township Police Department determined that Hibbs was likely murdered between 11:50 a.m. and 12:50 p.m. on April 19, 1991.

Witnesses reported seeing a blue Chevy Monte Carlo parked haphazardly outside the Hibbs home, a car that Atkins, who lived two doors down, was known to drive.

Investigators found evidence from numerous witness testimonies and surveillance footage found that Atkins had taken money from Hibbs before strangling her with a power cord, repeatedly stabbing her, and setting fire to the home in an attempt to cover up the crime.