A heartbroken grandmother has made a plea for help in tracking down her six-year-old granddaughter after she was sold to a “healer” by her own mother.
As per tragic reports, Joshlin Smith disappeared last February, with mom Kelly Smith initially telling authorities that she had vanished from outside her home in Saldanha Bay, close to Cape Town, South Africa.
A nationwide manhunt subsequently took place, but sadly Joshlin remains a missing person today, 15 months after the fact.
On May 30, Kelly Smith, 35, and two accomplices were sentenced to life in prison for their involvement in Joshlin’s disappearance. Shocking testimonies from the trial revealed how Kelly had offered to sell her three children for the equivalent of around $1,100 in local currency.
Reportedly, one local pastor testified that he had heard Kelly discuss the idea of selling her children in 2023. On that occasion, she had said she’d accept $275 for one of them.
Kelly’s mother – Joshlin’s grandmother – Amanda Smith-Daniels issued a desperate plea to her daughter from the courtroom, begging her 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,” Amanda told Newzroom Arikka.
In a haunting testimony, a friend and neighbor of Kelly, Lourentia Lombaard, alleged that Joshlin had been sold by her mother to a sangoma – a traditional African healer.
Lombaard told the court: “[The] person who [allegedly took] Joshlin wanted her for her eyes and skin.”
Meanwhile, one of Joshlin’s teachers told the jury that while the search was underway for the six-year-old, her mother had claimed that her daughter was “on a ship, inside a container, and they were on the way to West Africa.”
In excess of 30 witnesses shared distressing insights into what may have befallen little Joshlin. Smith’s boyfriend, Jacquen Appollis, and friend, Steveno van Rhyn, also received life sentences in connection with her disappearance.
During sentencing, Judge Nathan Erasmus said: “On the human trafficking charge, you are sentenced to life imprisonment. On the kidnapping charge, you are sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.”
The search for Joshlin continues.
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