South African mother convicted of selling her 6-year-old daughter in shocking trafficking case

A South African woman who once pleaded for help in finding her missing child has been convicted of kidnapping and human trafficking in a chilling case that stunned the nation. Her daughter, six-year-old Joshlin Smith, vanished over a year ago and remains unaccounted for.

On Friday, a court found Kelly Smith, whose full name is Racquel Chantel Smith, guilty alongside her boyfriend Jacquin Appollis and their friend Steveno van Rhyn, holding them responsible for Joshlin’s disappearance from their impoverished community near Saldanha Bay, a coastal town approximately 120 kilometers (75 miles) from Cape Town, according to an AP report.

Joshlin’s smiling face, with her hair neatly tied in pigtails, once appeared across national news broadcasts, rallying public sympathy and triggering a massive search effort across sand dunes and beyond. Neighbors, moved by Smith’s distraught pleas, had joined police in combing the terrain for the little girl.

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Smith initially claimed she had left Joshlin in the care of her boyfriend the day she went missing. But the narrative unraveled when she and the two men were arrested and charged.

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The trial took a horrifying turn when a witness testified that Smith confessed to selling Joshlin for approximately $1,000 to a traditional healer interested in her body parts. While the court did not determine the identity of the buyer or the precise fate of the child, the implications were deeply disturbing.

Presiding over the trial in a local sports center chosen for its capacity to accommodate the flood of community members, Judge Nathan Erasmus delivered the guilty verdict to a packed and emotional audience. Spectators erupted in applause and cheers as the judgment was read.

Smith and her co-defendants now await sentencing, with the possibility of life imprisonment looming. Hearings are scheduled to begin next week.

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