PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Bucks County officials have made an arrest in an unsolved 1991 murder of a Bristol Township woman.
Robert Atkins, 56, from Falls Township, is charged with the 1991 murder of 35-year-old Joy Hibbs after a grand jury investigation.
Hibbs’ house was on fire in April 1991 when her 12-year-old son got home from school. She was found dead in the boy’s bedroom. Authorities thought she died from the fire, but they found stab wounds and evidence that she had been strangled.
The grand jury presentment says Hibbs had cashed her paycheck shortly before she died, but the cash was never found. Witnesses say Atkins’ car was in her driveway around the suspected time of death.
He was interviewed by police twice at the time but denied involvement. Over the next three decades, he remained a person of interest.
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The case was submitted to the grand jury in January 2022. Prosecutors say Atkins’ ex-wife testified that on the afternoon Hibbs was killed, Atkins came home covered in blood. She said she kept quiet because she was scared of her ex-husband.
The presentment says Hibbs and her husband would often buy marijuana from Atkins, and there was an argument over money.
The family issued a statement: “The immense grief and suffering our family has endured over the last three decades will never disappear. For thirty-one years, our family has been haunted by this tragic loss, knowing, without a doubt, that Robert Atkins was the perpetrator. Our family has waited thirty-one years for justice to prevail.”