JOY'S TRAGIC DEATH

Friday, April 19th, 1991 was a warm and sunny spring day. School dismissed early, and David, Joy's 12 year old son, got off the school bus in front of their home on 1200 Spencer Drive in the Croydon section of Bristol Township. As he walked down the driveway past his mother's maroon Mercury Cougar, he noticed black smoke billowing out of a kitchen window. He ran around to the back of the house and opened the rear-kitchen door but was pushed back by a thick cloud of black smoke. A fire raged inside. David could see flames falling from the ceiling and noticed that all four burners on the stove were lit. He knew his mom was inside the home and was desperate to get into the burning house to save her.

David frantically screamed to a neighbor tending their lawn. A neighbor, Barbara Baker, later told reporters “I had the poor kid pinned against a tree. He wanted to run into the house to save his mother and puppy. He was striking me in the chest.” Another neighbor had to restrain David in a bear hug until paramedics arrived.

Joy's 16-year-old daughter, Angie, and husband, Charlie, soon arrived at the scene. Both were horrified by what was unfolding in front of their eyes.

Within an hour, the Hibbs family learned that Joy's lifeless body had been recovered from David's bedroom. At first it seemed that Joy was the tragic victim of a house fire. Two days later an autopsy revealed that Joy was badly beaten, stabbed five times in the neck, back, stomach and abdomen and strangled with a computer cord that was found wrapped around her torso. Smoke from the fire never entered her lungs. Joy Hibbs, a devoted wife and mother of two, was brutally murdered in her own home in broad daylight.

From the beginning, Robert Atkins, a former neighbor of the Hibbs family who occasionally sold the couple marijuana, was a suspect. A few weeks before her murder, Robert Atkins and Joy Hibbs had a dispute over claims of low-quality marijuana that Atkins had sold to her. Robert Atkins, who was well known by family and neighbors, for having an explosive temper, was overheard screaming at Joy "I will fucking kill you and blow up your house." A co-worker of Joy's also later told detectives that Joy had received similar threatening calls at her work. Atkins confirmed that he and Joy had a dispute over the sale of marijuana but denied any involvement in her murder.

Detectives investigating the case believed that Joy Hibbs was likely murdered between 11:50 a.m. and 12:50 p.m. During that one-hour window, witnesses spotted a blue Chevrolet Monte Carlo parked outside Hibbs’ home. Robert Atkins drove a blue Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

During one interview, Atkins told reporters that he had been a "Confidential Informant" for the Bristol Township Police Department at the time of the murder, and had a "good relationship" with Bristol Township narcotics detectives. Former Bristol Township Police Chief Thomas Mills later confirmed that in 1991, Atkins had been working for them as a CI purchasing meth and marijuana.

Atkins claimed that he was in the Poconos with his wife and children during the time of Joy's murder. Retired Bristol Township Detective Lieutenant Richard Bilson later told reporters "Atkins was in the Poconos." "I sent two detectives up there to where he was staying, along with a photo of him, and my detectives came back and said they had verified he had been there at the time of the murder." An alibi and the lack of hard evidence quickly ended Bristol Township detectives pursuit of Robert Atkins. The case went cold.

March 26th, 2014, the Huffington Post publishes a story about Joy's unsolved murder. In that article, David Hibbs accuses the Bristol Township police of covering up the crime. "I honestly believe they know who did it and they botched the investigation," David Hibbs told the Huffington Post.

Shortly after the Huffington Post article is published, Joy's murder investigation is re-opened by detective Michael Slaughter of the Bristol Township Police Department.

April 16th, 2014, Detective Slaughter conducts a “surprise” interview with April Atkins. She said it's the first time police have interviewed her about Joy Hibbs’ murder. She claimed her family went on a weekend trip to the Poconos the day Hibbs was murdered. 2 years later on September 11, 2016, April Atkins shows up at the Bristol Township Police Department on her own to provide a recorded statement implicating her ex-husband Robert in the murder of Joy Hibbs. The couple had separated in 2000 and divorced in 2007. April Atkins tells Slaughter that the day Hibbs was murdered, her husband came home covered in blood and admitted to her he'd stabbed someone and lit the person’s house on fire. She said her husband told her to pack up the kids, call out of work and they went to the Poconos for two days. She claimed she learned of Joy Hibbs’ murder after returning home.

OVER THE NEXT FIVE YEARS NOTHING HAPPENS WITH THIS NEW INFORMATION AND THE CASE GOES NOWHERE.

May 30th, 2021, Joy's husband, Charlie, goes to the Philadelphia Inquirer and offers a $25,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest in his wife's murder.

June 2021, the reward money is doubled to $50,000, which generates additional media attention.

November 2021,People Magazine Investigates offers to produce a segment on Joy's unsolved murder. As part of the taping of the show, producers arrange a meeting with Bucks County District Attorney, Matt Weintraub and the Hibbs family. DA Weintraub agrees to look into the case further and assigns Bucks County Detective, David Hanks, to lead an investigation.

January 2022, a Bucks County grand jury is empaneled and First Assistant District Attorney, Jennifer Schorn, begins presenting evidence to the grand jury. After five months of hearing testimonies the grand jury recommends the following charges: first-degree and second-degree murder, seven counts of arson and two counts of robbery in the murder of Joy Hibbs.

May 25th 2022, Robert Atkins, age 56, is arrested and arraigned without bail.

To date, Robert Atkins is awaiting trial.

The video link below is a visual account of the events described above.