A one-time confidential drug informant has been found guilty of killing his former neighbor and setting her home on fire in 1991, bringing one of Bucks County’s longest cold cases to a verdict.
Bucks County Common Pleas Judge Wallace Bateman Jr. found Robert Atkins, 57, guilty of first-degree murder and two counts of arson in the April 19, 1991 murder of Joy Hibbs.
Atkins showed no emotion after hearing the verdict. He maintained a stoic demeanor for most of the trial.
Hibbs’ husband, Charlie, 68, and the couple’s children, Angie and David, and family and friends who have attended the trial since it started Monday embraced and cried in the Bucks County courtroom when the verdict was read Thursday afternoon.
Joy Hibbs murder investigation timeline ‘Living on borrowed time:’ A timeline of the investigation in the Joy Hibbs murder in Croydon
The Hibbs family expressed their gratitude to all those involved in reopening the investigation two times after 1991 leading to Atkins arrest, said David Hibbs, who was 12 when his mom was murdered.