District Attorney Matt Weintraub today announced that a 56-year-old man will be charged with murdering Joy Hibbs in April 1991 and trying to cover up the crime by setting her Bristol Township home on fire, an arrest that follows a tireless investigation by Detectives with the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office and the Bristol Township Police Department and a recommendation by the County’s Investigating Grand Jury.
Robert Francis Atkins, of Falls Township, was charged this morning on counts of Murder in the First Degree, Murder in the Second Degree, two counts of Robbery and seven counts of Arson. The charges were approved by Grand Jury Supervising Judge Raymond F. McHugh. He was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Frank W. Peranteau Sr. who denied bail and remanded Atkins to the Bucks County Correctional Facility.
The Grand Jury presentment concluded that Atkins murdered 35-year-old Joy Hibbs on April 19, 1991, at her home at 1200 Spencer Drive in the Croydon section of Bristol Township, took money from her and intentionally set the family home on fire in an attempt to cover up the murder.
