UPDATED: Man Charged In 1991 Bristol Twp. Homicide

After 31 years, a man has been arrested in the violent murder of a Bristol Township wife and mother.

Robert Francis Atkins, 56, of Falls Township’s Fairless Hills section, was preliminarily arraigned before District Judge Frank Peranteau late Wednesday morning on charges of murder of the first degree, murder of the second degree, two counts of robbery, and seven count of arson. He was denied bail due to the charges.

Authorities said Robert Atkins was behind the April 1991 murder of Joy Hibbs and the following arson of her home.

April 19, 1991 started as a normal day for the Hibbs family. 

The kids went to school and Joy and Charlie Hibbs, the husband and wife parents to their children – then ages 12 and 16 – went through their daily routine. Joy Hibbs had a visit from two members of a local church at the family home in the 1200 block of Spencer Drive in Bristol Township’s Croydon section and Charlie Hibbs went to work and picked up carpet cleaner to clear up a mess made by the family’s new puppy, an energetic dog named Major.

That day at work in Northeast Philadelphia, Charlie Hibbs got the call. A coworker yelled to him: “Your house is on fire!” 

Charlie Hibbs jumped in a truck and headed to Croydon. His kids – David and Angie – were already on the street as police and firefighters swarmed. 

As Charlie Hibbs was on Spencer Drive, he saw a body on a gurney being wheeled out of the house. 

Emergency crews told him the body belonged to Joy Hibbs, his wife.

A friend of the Hibbs’ daughter recalled seeing Charlie Hibbs being told of his wife’s death and watching him break down. A witness testified he was clearly grief stricken by the news. 

Before the commotion began, David, the Hibbs’ sixth grade son, was walking home from the now-closed Mary Devine Elementary School and spotted the smoke coming from his home. Major, the family’s new puppy, ran out and David Hibbs darted to his neighbors yelling his family’s home was on fire and his mom was inside. 

Firefighters arrived to Spencer Drive to find the home ablaze. They entered and discovered Joy Hibbs deceased inside David’s bedroom. 

The initial thought was that wife and mother died in an accidental fire, but the fire marshal at the time, Edward Cooper, discovered the blaze started in four areas of the house and it was likely an accelerant had been used. 

An autopsy on April 20, 1991 found Joy Hibbs, who was badly burned, was stabbed, beaten, and likely strangled by a computer cord before her death. 

Detectives in 1991 found Joy Hibbs had cashed a check hours before her death. Inside the fire-damaged house, her wallet was found in the sofa and her purse and its contents were found strewn about the floor of the kitchen. The money was never found. 

After the autopsy, the investigation kicked up and detectives were busy asking questions. They talked to Charlie Hibbs, but he was cleared in the murder.

There were also other persons of interest.

Charlie and Joy Hibbs smoked marijuana at times, but hid it from their kids. They had purchased pot from one of Charlie Hibbs’ co-workers and at times Robert Francis Atkins, according to authorities. 

Atkins was looked at in 1991, but the alibi he told detectives at the time that he was with his family in the Poconos checked out. 

Although it was unclear how much scrutiny Robert Atkins story was given at the time. Robert Atkins, a former neighbor of the Hibbs, was familiar with police. It turns out he was a police informant on drug cases and a user of methamphetamine, but he didn’t consider himself a “dealer,” according to court filings. 

Witnesses had told police of a blue Chevrolet Monte Carlo that was spotted parked outside of the Hibbs’ household before the fire. It was parked in a manor that seemed haphazard. 

The grand jury wrote they discovered Robert Atkins had access, among other vehicles, to a Chevrolet Monte Carlo in 1991. 

Authorities believe Joy Hibbs was killed between 11:50 a.m. and 12:50 p.m. on April 19, 1991. It was the same time the Monte Carlo was parked outside. 

Over the years, the case remained open, but new life was breathed into it when Detective Michael Slaughter, a veteran investigator who knows the ins and outs of Bristol Township, was assigned the case in 2014. He dove in and gathered the reports, produced a timeline of events, and began reinterviewing people. As time passed, Bucks County Detective David Hanks, a veteran lawman himself, joined the probe that took on a new energy. 

When Slaughter began taking a fresh look at the case, Atkins and his former wife, who he was divorced from for several years, were listed as “persons of interest.” 

Slaughter, according to the grand jury’s indictment, interviewed April Atkins about the case in 2014. She said it was the first time she had been asked about the crime and told them her, Robert Atkins and the family took a quick “vacation break” to the Poconos at the time of the homicide. 

In 2016, April Atkins met to police during an unscheduled visit to their station. She testified before the grand jury that her decision came on the heels of a man who treated her kindly, her mother, and her niece all passing away within a short period of time.

April Atkins said she wanted to correct a lie and make things right. 

“She indicated the Friday that Joy Hibbs was murdered her husband, Robert Atkins, came home covered in blood and admitted to her he stabbed someone and lit the house on fire. She said she was told to pack up the kids and call out of work, and then they fled to the Poconos,” the grand jury wrote.

April Atkins also told the grand jury her then-husband had a bag and left it in the woods in the Poconos when they headed up north following the murder. She was not sure what was in it, but noted Robert Atkins commonly carried a knife. 

Robert Atkins, according to his ex-wife, was physically and mentally abusive and would get “particularly vicious” when he was using meth and steroids. He would be forceful during intoxicated sex and police came to their house due to domestic issues. 

April Atkins testified she believed the police would take it easy on Robert Atkins because he was an informant for detectives. 

First Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Schorn said in court Wednesday that Robert Atkins had been arrested in the past, but never convicted of any crimes. 

April Atkins and Robert Atkins knew the Hibbs and had provided them with marijuana. 

The night before Joy Hibbs was killed, April Atkins had a phone call with a lover she was cheating on her husband with. She believed her then-husband heard the phone call where she expressed love for another man, she testified. 

Robert Atkins had spoken with police over the years before he was called before the grand jury in April. 

He testified he had sold meth and worked as an informant who often dealt with now-retired detectives Al Eastlack and Tommy Mills, who he credited with “saving his life.” He said he didn’t use meth after becoming a father in 1986.

Robert Atkins said he first heard of his former neighbor’s murder when Eastlack and Mills visited his Falls Township apartment the Sunday after the murder and after he returned from the Poconos, the grand jury wrote. 

During his testimony in spring, Robert Atkins said he read news articles on the murder and admitted to speaking to a Huffington Post reporter and Slaughter years back, but he had memory trouble since a self-diagnosed brain aneurysm. 

When the grand jury confronted Robert Atkins about holes in his alibi and timeline, he asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. 

“It should be noted throughout his testimony that Robert Atkins was sweating, turning red, and was evasive,” the grand jury wrote.

Throughout the investigation, it became clear Robert Atkins could get angry and had made a threat over an unpaid doctor’s bill in the past. It also came to light that Joy Hibbs and Robert Atkins had a disagreement over the quality of marijuana he sold her in the weeks before her death. 

Robert Atkins testified before the grand jury that he did have a disagreement with Joy Hibbs over the marijuana. 

Authorities seem to believe that disagreement led to Robert Atkins being upset at Joy Hibbs leading up to her death.

Robert Atkins was silent as reporters asked him Wednesday why he committed the crime. 

Craig Penglase, Robert Atkins’ attorney, did not respond to a request for comment on his client’s arrest. 

Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub told reporters he believed Atkins knew he would be arrested and it was only a matter of time. 

“He has been living free but on borrowed time. Today, we start collecting on that time,” the district attorney said. 

Robert Atkins’ youngest son, who lives with him, testified his father had been preparing him to be on his own, and he knew something bad had happened in his dad’s past. 

Weintraub said the case wouldn’t be solved without those who spoke up, the investigators, prosecutor Shorn, and the power of the grand jury. 

In addressing reporters, Weintraub commended April Atkins for coming forward and speaking up. He said she will not be charged, and she was in fear of Robert Atkins. 

On why there was a years-long lag between when April Atkins implicated her ex-husband and his arrest, Weintraub said authorities had to corroborate her statements. He said numerous other factors helped the case come together in 2021 and 2022. 

Weintraub also told reporters he couldn’t answer whether police missed key signs that Robert Atkins was a key suspect in the 1990s because of his role as an informant. He couldn’t say, but he felt every rock may not have been overturned at the time.

“There must be a reason we weren’t here for the past 31 years, but I can’t say what that is,” he said. “All I can tell you is that we’re here now.” 

Bristol Township police Chief Robert Coulton said he couldn’t speak to how the case was handled in 1991 or whether Robert Atkins’ informant role was a factor at the time. 

The district attorney said Robert Atkins’ arrest brought the Hibbs family closer to justice. 

In a statement, the Hibbs family recalled Joy Hibbs’ as a loving mother and caring person. 

“For 31 years, our family has been haunted by this tragic loss knowing without a doubt Robert Atkins was the perpetrator,” they said. “Our family has waited 31 years for justice to prevail.” 

Original Story:

After 31 years, a person has been arrested in the violent murder of a Bristol Township woman inside her home.

Robert Francis Atkins, 56, of Bristol Township’s Fairless Hills section, was preliminarily arraigned before District Judge Frank Peranteau late Wednesday morning on charges of murder of the first degree, murder of the second degree, two counts of robbery, and seven count of arson. He was denied bail due to the charges.

Hibbs was stabbed to death and strangled with a computer cord inside her Spencer Drive home in Bristol Township’s Croydon section in April 1991. Her home was then set ablaze and firefighters discovered her badly burned body inside a bedroom, according to news clippings from the time.

Atkins, a former police informant on drug cases, was charged after a months-long grand jury investigation and decades of police work. He had previously been a suspect in the case.

According to a grand jury presentment unsealed Wednesday, Atkins knew Hibbs and her husband because he would occasionally sell them marijuana. There was a dispute over the quality of the weed in the weeks before the murder.

Atkins’ wife came forward to detectives in 2016 and implicated her husband in Hibbs’ homicide, police said.

“She indicated the Friday that Joy Hibbs was murdered, her husband, Robert Atkins, came home covered in blood and admitted to her he stabbed someone and lit the house on fire. She said she was told to pack up the kids and call out of work, and then they fled to the Poconos,” the grand jury wrote.

Witnesses over the years indicated that Atkinds may have been in the area of Hibbs’ home on the day of the murder, but he had alibis that provided some cover.

The case has received national attention over the years.

In 2021, the Philadelphia Inquirer followed up on the case and reported a reward of $50,000 had been offered. Hibbs’ family wanted answers.

“This is something you can’t put behind you. You just learn to live with it,” Charlie Hibbs, the victim’s husband, told the newspaper in 2021. “I’m just reaching out for help. She was a good woman and she never harmed anyone in her life.”

Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub is expected to hold a press conference Wednesday afternoon to discuss the case further.

Atkins didn’t respond to reporters’ questions about his motive or if he thought he would be caught.

This story will be updated as more information is available.

Editor’s Note: All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.

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