'Living on borrowed time:' A timeline of the investigation in the Joy Hibbs murder in Croydon

It took 31 years for an arrest in the murder and arson coverup of Joy Hibbs in Croydon as the investigation over those decades had a handful of stops and starts.

Authorities on Wednesday said her one-time neighbor, who was also a police confidential informant at the time, strangled, beat and robbed Hibbs and then set her home ablaze to cover up the crime. Robert Atkins, 56, of Fairless Hills, now sits in county prison charged with murder, arson and robbery, facing life behind bars if convicted.

"Atkins for the past 31 years has been living free, but on borrowed time," said Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub. "Today, we start to collect on that time from him with interest."

Here is a look at how the Hibbs case unfolded over the last three decades.

April 19, 1991

Firefighters and police respond to a house fire in the 1200 block of Spencer Drive in Croydon, where they find Joy Hibbs, 35, a mother of two, dead inside the bedroom of her 12-year-old son.  Initially, police thought Hibbs died in an accidental fire, but an autopsy shows she was dead before the fire was intentionally set.  She had been badly beaten, asphyxiated and stabbed five times.

More:Ex-police informant charged in 1991 murder of Croydon mom found dead in arson fire at her home

April 21, 1991

Former Bristol Township Police Chief Tommy Mills, then a narcotics detective, and fellow narcotics detective Al Eastlack went to an apartment in Falls to interview Robert Atkins, a former neighbor of the Hibbs family who occasionally sold the couple marijuana. Atkins was home but refused to let police inside. Mills noticed a dark-colored Monte Carlo parked in the lot, which is the color and model of car that witnesses had described as being haphazardly parked outside the Hibbs home around the time of the murder and fire.

June 24, 1991

Robert Atkins is asked, and refuses, to take a polygraph test as part of the investigation into Joy Hibbs’ murder claiming he injured his arm.  He provides police with contact information for a coworker of his wife who he says can provide an alibi for him.

June 27, 1991

Bristol Township police interviewed the coworker of April Atkins who provided a statement that she called the Atkins home on April 19, 1991 between 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. and Robert Atkins answered the phone. Police believe that Hibbs was murdered between sometime between 12 and 1 p.m.

More on case for subscribers:He had a hunch, but no evidence. 30 years later this old Bristol Township cop celebrates arrest in 1991 murder

March 26, 2014

The Huffington Post releases a story on the unsolved murder of Joy Hibbs. The story includes an interview with Robert Atkins (though his name is spelled wrong).  Now retired Lt. Richard Bilson says that Atkins drove a Monte Carlo and Charlie Hibbs said he bought small amounts of marijuana from Atkins.  He also claims a witness who spotted the Monte Carlo outside the Hibbs residence later said Atkins’ vehicle didn’t match the car she saw, and he also revealed that Akins refused a polygraph. David Hibbs also told the reporter he overheard his parents talk about a disagreement with Atkins over the marijuana Joy Hibbs purchased in the weeks before her murder.  Atkins acknowledged the disagreement.

April 16, 2014

Bristol Township Detective Michael Slaughter, who has been assigned the Hibbs murder, conducts a “surprise” interview with April Atkins. She said it is the first time police have interviewed her about Joy Hibbs’ murder.   She claimed her family went on a weekend trip to the Poconos the day Hibbs was murdered, but she did not find out about it until they returned.

April 18, 2014

Slaughter interviews Robert Atkins, who tells the detective he was working as a confidential informant for Bristol Township police in 1991. He admitted he had a dispute with Joy Hibbs over marijuana, but denied threatening her.  He claimed the day of the murder he took his family on a weekend trip to the Poconos, and that he had an alibi for the time of the murder. In December 2015, Slaughter interviewed former chief Mills, who confirmed Atkins was a confidential drug informant in 1991.

May 28, 2014

Slaughter meets with a former coworker of Joy Hibbs, who worked at the same Bensalem medical practice in 1991.  She tells him the Monday before she was murdered, an angry man called Joy Hibbs at work  and threatened to kill her. The coworker said she didn’t tell police this before because they appeared to be focused on Hibbs' husband as a person-of-interest in her death.

September 11, 2016

April Atkins shows up at the Bristol Township Police Department on her own to provide a recorded statement implicating her ex-husband Robert in the murder of Joy Hibbs.  The couple had separated in 2000 and divorced in 2007.  April Atkins tells Slaughter that the day Hibbs was murdered, her husband came home covered in blood and admitted to her he stabbed someone and lit the person’s house on fire. She said her husband told her to pack up the kids, call out of work and they went to the Poconos for two days.  She claimed she learned of Joy Hibbs’ murder after returning home.

November 2021

Bucks County Detective David Hanks meets with a former coworker of April Atkins from April 1991. Initially the woman denied carpooling with Atkins or knowing her and didn’t recall being interviewed by police in 1991. Later, when she appeared before the grand jury, though, the woman changed her story.

December 2021

Hanks supervised the intercepted communications between Robert and April Atkins, with the cooperation of April Atkins. Robert Atkins was led to believe that police showed up unannounced at April’s out-of-state home to interview her about the Hibbs murder and interview her roommate, who Robert Atkins was led to believe April told about Atkins 1991 confession.

April 14, 2022

The Atkins’ youngest son, who lives with Robert Atkins, testifies before the grand jury that in late December his father told him that he was probably getting arrested for “something that happened a long time ago.” The son testified that his father initially said a woman died in a fire but later said she was stabbed.

May 25, 2022

Robert Atkins, 56, is arrested and charged with first-degree and second-degree murder, seven counts of arson and two counts of robbery in the death of Joy Hibbs. The Bucks County District Attorney releases the 35-page grand jury presentment outlining the case against Robert Atkins.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: A timeline of the investigation in the Joy Hibbs murder in Croydon