What Croydon neighbors saw outside the home of Joy Hibbs the day she was murdered.

Two days after her friend’s mom was murdered in 1991, a Bristol Township police detective drove Colleen Kelly Merhar was driven around an apartment complex parking lot to look at cars.

They wanted to see if the then 16 year old spotted the dark blue Chevy Monte Carlo she claimed was parked haphazardly outside the home of Joy Hibbs around the time police believed she was killed.

Hibbs, 35, a mother of two, was found stabbed, strangled and beaten in her Croydon home, which was intentionally set on fire, a crime that went unsolved for more than 30 years before a former neighbor was charged in 2022,  authorities said.

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On Monday, the opening day of the bench trial for Robert Atkins, 57, at the Bucks County Justice Center, Merhar was among half a dozen witnesses who testified about their recollections of the crime and the subsequent police investigation.

Hibbs' children, David and Angie, who were 12 and 16 respectively at the time of her murder, and her husband Charlie testified that they initially believed that Hibbs had died in an accidental fire at the home on April 19, 1991.

It was only after her autopsy was completed the next day that it was revealed her death was no accident.

Merhar was among a handful of Croydon Acres neighbors that police interviewed in the days after the murder who claimed they saw a dark blue Chevy Monte Carlo parked outside the Hibbs home before the fire, which police considered a significant lead in the case.

Decades later, in 2014, Robert Atkins allegedly told a Bristol Township detective looking into the Hibbs murder that he owned a black Monte Carlo that he later painted blue.

After Atkins was charged with Hibbs' murder in 2022, his family members who live in Tennessee provided authorities with a photo of the family posing with a dark blue Monte Carlo in the background.

The photo was allegedly taken during an Easter visit two weeks before Hibbs was murdered.

On Monday, Christina Raudenbush, another neighbor in 1991 and friend of Angie Hibbs, testified that she noticed a blue Monte Carlo outside the Hibbs home on her way to work the day of the murder.

Raudenbush estimated she saw the Monte Carlo  between noon and 12:30 the day of the murder.

Authorities estimated that Hibbs was likely killed during an hour-long window between 11:50 a.m. and 12:50 p.m.

Merhar also testified Monday that she drove past the Monte Carlo twice that day; the second time was around 1 p.m.,, she testified.

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Later that same day, while she was watching the unfolding chaos at her friend Angie’s house, Merhar recalled telling David Hibbs that she saw a dark blue Monte Carlo parked outside their house earlier that day.

“That’s April’s car,” David Hibbs told her.

April was April Atkins, who was married to Robert Atkins, who at the time was an unemployed, small-time drug dealer and confidential drug informant for Bristol Township police.

The Atkins family lived on Spencer Drive two doors away from Hibbs for about 18 months before losing their home in a foreclosure in 1991.  April Atkins and Joy Hibbs were close friends, according to David Hibbs.

David Hibbs testified Monday that he knew Robert Atkins had a blue Monte Carlo because one day he saw him cleaning it and he asked about it.

Robert Atkins was initially a prime suspect in the murder and arson but police quickly dismissed him after they allegedly verified his alibis that he and his family were on a planned vacation in the Poconos.

Merhar testified at the time she didn’t know who April Atkins was, but she told police about seeing the Monte Carlo and what David told her about it.

At the apartment complex where police took her, Merhar testified she didn’t recognize any Monte Carlos as the same one she saw outside the Hibbs house.

Among the models she was shown was a 1987 black Monte Carlo parked near the building where the Atkins family lived, according to Bucks County Detective David Hanks, who investigated the case in 2021.

Hanks testified that records show that a Bristol Township police officer ran the black Monte Carlos’ registration around 10 a.m. on April 21, 1991 and it came back as registered to April and Robert Atkins.

While the car was in the parking lot, police tracked the Atkins family to the Poconos, some two hours away. The attorneys Monday did not question witnesses about any other vehicle the Atkins owned.

The motel registry showed the Atkins family checked in shortly before 5 p.m. on April 19, 1991.  They checked out shortly before 11:30 a.m. two days later, Hanks testified on Monday.

The trial will continue on Tuesday when April Atkins is expected to testify.

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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Trial in cold case 1991 murder of Bucks County mom opens