Joshlin Smith went missing from outside her home in Saldanha Bay near Cape Town, South Africa, in February of 2024, per BBC’s report. However, the investigation into her vanishing revealed that this wasn’t a case of a child wandering off and ending up in the wrong hands. Police suspected she was sold.
Smith was eventually arrested in connection to her daughter’s disappearance. Smith was taken to trial on kidnapping and trafficking charges in March. Witness testimonies revealed a horrifying suggestion on what happened to Joshlin. A local pastor testified that back in 2023, Smith had talks of selling her kids for 20,000 rand a pop ($1,100 in USD), per BBC. The report also says Joshlin’s teacher took the stand, claiming Smith told her as community members searched restlessly for the girl, Joshlin was already “on a ship, inside a container” and “on her way to West Africa.”
In the most startling testimony, Lourentia Lombaard, Smith’s neighbor, claimed Smith told her she’d done “something silly” and sold the girl to a traditional healer or “sangoma” who wanted her for her eyes and skin, per BBC. The report says these healers are known for making traditional “cures” and crafting “good luck charms” from bodily parts.
On Friday, May 2, after these damning testimonies, a jury found the mother guilty of her charges. A jury also convicted Appollis, Smith’s boyfriend, and their friend Steveno van Rhyn, on the same charges in connection to Joshlin’s disappearance.
