After 32 years, a Croydon mother’s alleged killer begins his trial before a Bucks County judge

Joy Hibbs’ family has lived 32 years without her presence in their lives, without her infectious, bright personality that made her first name seem almost literal. Three decades of birthdays, Christmases, and other milestones were robbed from them, burned away like the house fire her killer set to hide his tracks.

They have waited for closure, knowing that the man prosecutors say is responsible for her violent death has not had to answer for his actions.

By the end of this week, that wait may be over. By then, Robert Atkins, charged with stabbing Hibbs, 35, in her home in 1991, will have his fate placed in the hands of a Bucks County judge.

Atkins’ trial on first- and second-degree murder, robbery, and arson began Monday in Doylestown before County Court Judge Wallace H. Bateman. The Falls Township resident, 57, opted out of a jury trial.

That decision came after prosecutors, led by District Attorney Jennifer Schorn, filed motions indicating their intention to seek the death penalty against Atkins if he is convicted of Hibbs’ murder.

Schorn opened the trial with a summary of the protracted investigation of Atkins’ alleged involvement, comparing statements and interviews of witnesses both in 1991 and more recently.

The investigation into Hibbs’ death sat cold for decades, until Bristol Township Police detectives looked at the file anew in 2014. Still, little momentum was made until 2021, when The Inquirer published a story about the case and a $25,000 reward offered by Hibbs’ husband, Charlie, to find her killer.

“I owe this much to Joy. I should’ve done more, but I didn’t know how at the time,” Charlie Hibbs said in 2021. “I don’t have closure. And I think if I had closure, I’d be able to move on.”

A grand jury was impaneled months later. And in May 2022, Atkins, the Hibbs’ former neighbor, was taken into custody.

The mother of two was killed on April 19, 1991, an otherwise normal day for her, by all accounts. She had run some errands and was preparing to leave for her job as a medical assistant at local doctor’s office, according to her family.

Neighbors told investigators they remembered seeing Hibbs go through that routine, according to court documents. Tina Raudenbush, one of those neighbors, testified Monday that she saw a distinct, blue Chevrolet Monte Carlo parked haphazardly near the curb in front of the Hibbs’ home. It was, she said, an unusual sight.

Hours later, when David Hibbs, Joy’s son, came home from school, he stopped in his tracks. Thick, acrid smoke knocked him backward as he opened the door, he said in court Monday. Fighting back tears, Hibbs described the absolute hysteria and panic he felt as, helplessly, he screamed for his neighbors to help his mother, who he believed was trapped inside the burning home.

They had to hold the then-12 year old from running back inside. He was desperate, he said, to go save his mother.

Hibbs, a self-described “momma’s boy,” was inseparable from his mother at that age. From the witness stand, he spoke lovingly of her, and her love of children.

“Her name was Joy, and that was the essence of who she was,” he said. “She was a joy, she was so kind.”

The family long considered Atkins the prime suspect — David Hibbs, when told about the blue Monte Carlo after the fire, immediately recognized it as his vehicle.

Atkins had sold Charlie and Joy Hibbs marijuana in the weeks before her death. Not long after, David Hibbs said he overheard an argument between Atkins and his mother over the quality of it, during which he threatened to kill her and blow her house up. During the grand jury investigation, prosecutors learned someone had called the office where Joy Hibbs worked weeks earlier to make a similar threat.

Another neighbor also told investigators in 1991, without knowing Atkins was a suspect, that he made the same threat to her over a dispute about debris on his yard.

Charlie Hibbs, testifying Monday, said that while his wife and Atkins’ wife, April, were close friends, he wanted nothing to do with Robert Atkins. Hibbs blamed himself, he said, for introducing his wife to marijuana, and said she bought it from Atkins when he was unable to find some on his own.

Indeed, Atkins drove a blue Monte Carlo, matching the one seen outside of the Hibbs’ home that morning, according to testimony Monday. But Bristol Township police ruled him out initially, saying he had a solid alibi: He and his wife had left for the Poconos that day, he said.

But Atkins led a double life. He dabbled in selling methamphetamine, and, by 1991, had become a confidential drug informant for the local police, according to grand jury documents. That revelation after Atkins’ arrest infuriated the Hibbs’ family. They wondered if that prevented detectives from properly handling her murder.

The final piece that fell into place was testimony from April Atkins, who told the grand jury that her then-husband had come home that day covered in blood and confessed to stabbing someone.

She said fear of her ex-husband had caused her to deny any knowledge of the case in 2014, when detectives approached her. She depended on him financially, prosecutors said.

But the guilt, she said, became too much for her.

“I knew I’d have to pull this skeleton out of the closet,” Atkins said at her ex’s preliminary hearing in September 2022. “To me, this was something so terribly wrong that I had to right. I lied, and that was on me.”

The trial is expected to last through Friday.