A Bucks County man will face trial in the 1991 cold-case murder of his neighbor

After three decades of waiting, April Atkins finally revealed Wednesday in a Bristol courtroom what she said is the truth.

Her ex-husband, Robert, had admitted killing Joy Hibbs to her mere moments after committing the act — still wearing blood-soaked clothes, April Atkins testified during an hours-long preliminary hearing.

“I kept my mouth closed,” Atkins said about her silence during a meeting she attended with her ex and detectives shortly after the murder, “because I was terrified and scared.”

In April 1991, Hibbs, 35, was stabbed and strangled inside her home in Croydon, which was then set ablaze by her killer to hide evidence. That method was effective: Prosecutors say Robert Atkins eluded capture until May, when he was charged with murder, arson, burglary, and related offenses in Hibbs’ death.

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Part of that delay, prosecutors contend, was due to Atkins’ work as a confidential drug informant for Bristol Township police. Statements and reports penned by now-dead officers seemed to indicate Atkins was warned ahead of time that he was considered an early suspect in Hibbs’ death, according to testimony Wednesday.

Atkins, 56, pleaded not guilty during Wednesday’s hearing before Magisterial District Court Judge Frank Peranteau. He has denied any involvement in Hibbs’ slaying, maintaining the same alibi he’s held since 1991: that he and his wife were away in the Poconos when the murder took place.

Peranteau was not swayed, and held Atkins over for trial.

Atkins’ attorney, Craig Penglase, did not make any argument during the hearing and declined to comment afterward.

The case languished, unsolved, for decades. It wasn’t until June 2021, after a story was published in The Inquirer about a reward that Hibbs’ husband, Charlie, was offering, that the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office took a fresh look at the case.

During the course of that investigation, detectives discovered that Atkins, a small-time methamphetamine dealer, lived two doors down from the Hibbs family, prosecutors said. He frequently sold small amounts of marijuana to Joy and Charlie, but in the weeks before her death had gotten into an argument with her about one transaction, according to Joy’s son, David.

David Hibbs testified that his mother, “a beautiful woman with a Southern accent,” had tried to get a refund from Atkins over poor-quality marijuana he had sold her. Atkins refused, and became violent, once calling the Hibbs home and threatening to kill his mother and blow up their house, according to a conversation Hibbs said he overheard.

His mother told him that Atkins made a similar threatening phone call to her while she was at work at a family doctor’s office in Bensalem. Around that same time frame, Hibbs said, his family’s back door was nearly kicked off its hinges and all four tires on his mother’s car were slashed.

On the day of the murder, Hibbs said, he came home from school early, excited to show his mother his honor-roll certificate. He was greeted by intense flames, which soon overtook the home.

Medics had to pin the then-12-year-old down to prevent him from running inside to try to save his mother.

“It’s truly an out-of-body experience, knowing your house is on fire and your mom might be in it,” Hibbs said, choking back tears.

After the fire, detectives discovered that Joy Hibbs had been stabbed to death before the blaze was intentionally lit. Multiple neighbors told police at the time that they saw a distinctive blue Monte Carlo parked haphazardly in front of the Hibbs home just before the murder.

It matched the car that Atkins had recently purchased, according to investigators.

Meanwhile, Atkins returned to his home nearby, and told his wife that he had “stabbed someone and burned down their house,” according to her testimony Wednesday. He patted his pocket, she said, seeming to refer to the folding knife he always carried.

Atkins then forced his wife to call out of work suddenly and take an impromptu trip to White Haven, Luzerne County. The ride there was “the scariest trip” she had ever taken, she said, with a raging Atkins driving wildly on the highway.

In the Poconos, Atkins disposed of a bag in the woods, and the couple returned to Bucks County after spending the weekend.

April Atkins said she maintained that alibi for years out of fear of her husband and his temper. She came forward in 2016, and worked alongside county detectives throughout their investigation. She is not facing charges.

“I knew I’d have to pull this skeleton out of the closet,” April Atkins said. “To me, this was something so terribly wrong that I had to right. I lied, and that was on me.”