Racquel ‘Kelly, Smith, 35, has been convicted of kidnapping and trafficking her minor daughter and jailed for life along with her two accomplices

The mother from Cape Town, South Africa, sold her six-year-old daughter ‘for purposes of slavery,’ prosecutors said

Smith, her boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and their friend Steveno van Rhyn were sentenced to sentenced to life imprisonment for human trafficking and 10 years for kidnapping

On February 19, 2024, six-year-old Joshlin Smith vanished outside her home in Saldanha Bay, near Cape Town

That day Joshlin didn’t attend school because she did not have a clean uniform and is yet to be found despite a highly publicized search

South African prosecutors say she was sold into slavery however this was not definitively proven during the trial

Smith who struggles with substance abuse, needed the money, it is believed

A neighbor testified that Smith told her she‘d done “something silly” and sold Joshlin to a “Sangoma”, as traditional healers are known in South Africa

Joshlin Smith [photo], vanished in February 2024. The six-year-old was not in school the day she disappeared, because she did not have a clean uniform

A mother from Cape Town, South Africa, has been convicted of kidnapping and trafficking her six-year-old daughter and sentenced to life in prison, same as her two male accomplices. All three refused to take the stand during the eight week trial which began in March.
Sentencing for 35-year-old Racquel Smith, aka Kelly Smith, her boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and their friend Steveno van Rhyn, comes over a year after six-year-old Joshlin Smith mysteriously disappeared outside her home in Saldanha Bay, near Cape Town.
A highly publicized search for the girl, who vanished in February 19, 2024 commenced, but she is yet to be found.
South African prosecutors insist the child sold into slavery for money, although that fact was not definitively proven at trial. They argued that Smith, a single mother-of-of-three who struggles with drug addiction, needed the money.
The three life sentences were handed down at the end of an eight-week trial that captivated South Africa, with witnesses and prosecutors making a number of shocking allegations.
Judge Nathan Erasmus said he “drew no distinction” between the trio in handing down the sentences.
“On the human trafficking charge, you are sentenced to life imprisonment. On the kidnapping charge, you are sentenced to 10 years imprisonment,” he said to loud applause in the courtroom.

The mother of the missing child Racquel Kelly Smith, [photo], refused to testify in the six-week trial was convicted of kidnapping and trafficking her daughter. She has been sentenced to life in prison, same as her two male accomplices

During the trial a video clip of a laughing six years old Joshlin Smith, [image], who went missing in Feb. 2024 in South Africa, had most of the courtroom gallery sobbing

Judge Erasmus took over an hour to deliver the sentence and was measured as he gave a brief summary of the case and highlighted points that stood out during the trial.
He rebuked the trio, especially Van Rhyn and Smith, saying they showed no remorse for their actions.
“There is nothing that I can find that is redeeming or deserving of a lesser sentence,” he said.
He also spoke of the impact their conduct had on the community of Middelpos, where the girl lived, saying it had left residents “fractured”.
The co-conspirators, Smith, Jacquen Appollis and Steveno van Rhyn, all showed no emotion as their sentences were read out in the community center in Saldanha where the trial was held to allow residents to attend proceedings.

Racquel ‘Kelly’ Smith, [right], her boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and their friend Steveno van Rhyn, were all convicted and sentenced in the disappearance of Smith’s six-year-old daughter, Joshlin who is yet to be found

Police said the search for the little girl would continue, even beyond South Africa’s borders.
“We will not rest until we find [out] what happened to Joshlin. We are continuing day and night looking for her,” Western Cape police commissioner Thembisile Patekile said.
Ahead of sentencing, Joshlin’s grandmother, Amanda Smith-Daniels, once again remonstrated with her daughter to “bring my [grand]child back or tell me where she is”.
“I don’t feel that any sentence they get will bring my grandchild back,” she told local broadcaster Newzroom Afrika.
Joshlin’s disappearance has left her family “broken”, her grandmother said.
She urged her daughter to stop blaming others for her misfortune as she “was the person that did the deed”.

Amanda Smith-Daniels [photo], just wants her granddaughter back. Ahead of sentencing she told her daughter: “bring my [grand]child back or tell me where she is”

During the trial, the court heard testimonies from more than 30 witnesses. The hardship the girl was subjected to prior to her disappearance.
Although Kelly Smith and her accomplices refused to testify or call any witnesses for their defense, the most explosive testimony came from Lourentia Lombaard, a friend and neighbor of Smith who turned state witness.
Lombaard alleged that Smith told her she had done “something silly” and sold Joshlin to a traditional healer, known in South Africa as a “Sangoma”.
The “person who [allegedly took] Joshlin wanted her for her eyes and skin”, Lombaard told the court.
A local pastor also testified that in 2023, a year prior to the trafficking incident, he overheard Kelly Smith discussing selling her children for 20,000 rand [$1,100], apiece, then going further to say she was willing to accept a lower figure of $275.
The testimonies of Lombard and the clergyman, along with Joshlin’s teacher, who testified that Smith had told her during the search that her daughter was already “on a ship, inside a container, were on the way to West Africa”, were key to securing a conviction.
During sentencing hearings, Smith was described as manipulative and someone who told “bald-faced lies”.
A social worker appointed to compile a report on Smith and her accomplices, went so far as to say it would not be a “stretch to conclude that [Kelly] Smith is the mastermind behind the trafficking of her own daughter”.