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South African child Joshlin Smith has been missing for the last 15 months and despite a national manhunt, authorities have found no trace of her disappearance.
This week, the six-year-old's mom Kelly Smith was found guilty of selling her to a 'healer', with multiple witnesses having taken to the stand to testify against her after she had confessed to the crime during the desperate search for the youngster.
Smith and her two accomplices, boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and friend Steveno van Rhyn, were handed life sentences by Judge Nathan Erasmus - who commented on how the trio showed no remorse during the trial.
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"On the human trafficking charge, you are sentenced to life imprisonment. On the kidnapping charge, you are sentenced to 10 years imprisonment," he ruled.
It means the 35-year-old will serve a minimum of 35 years in prison before she's awarded the opportunity for parole, as will van Rhyn and Appollis.
Joshlin - who was six-years-old at the time of her disappearance on February 19, 2024 - vanished without a trace, with her mom claiming she was playing outside of her shack that they lived in with Appollis and her two siblings, in the Middelpos area of Saldanha.
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During the trial, a local pastor said that in 2023 they had overheard Kelly, a mom-of-three, talking about selling her kids for 20,000 rand reach (around $1,100), but also said she'd accept a sum as low as $275.
Meanwhile a neighbor, Lourentia Lombaard, testified that Kelly had told her that she had sold her daughter for 20,000 rand to a traditional healer known as a sangoma who 'wanted her for her eyes and skin'.
Joshlin's teacher Tahirih Edna Maart, who works at Diazville Primary School in Saldanha, accused Smith of confessing to the crime while they stopped at a petrol station during the desperate search for the youngster - just four days into her disappearance.
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Maart told the court: “What she told me was, ‘teacher, I want to tell you something confidential’, I said I was listening - she was talking very softly. She said she had received a call from a Nigerian man, who said that she had to ‘play quickly’.
“I asked her how she knew it was a Nigerian man. She didn’t answer. She then said that according to the information she received from the Nigerian man, Joshlin was on a boat in a container and that they were on their way to West Africa."
Maart continued: "I asked if she had told the police and she said, 'teacher, I am scared because [the community] wants to hurt me'.
“Just before she got out, she said in a very soft voice, 'remember, Boeta [Appollis] is not guilty'. That is where it ended, she got out of the car and vanished."
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Over 30 witnesses in total shared horrifying insights into what might have happened to Joshlin, with Smith's own mom Amanda Smith-Daniels even taking the stand herself.
She desperately plead with her daughter from the courtroom, asking her to 'bring my [grand]child back or tell me where she is'.
Speaking to Newzroom Arikka, she also said: "I don't feel that any sentence they get will bring my grandchild back," adding that Joshlin's disappearance had left her family 'broken'."
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The search for Joshlin continues, with police releasing a statement to local media.
Western Cape police commissioner Thembisile Patekile stated: "We will not rest until we find [out] what happened to Joshlin. We are continuing day and night looking for her."
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) resolved the sentence proves the six-year-old was 'sold [and] delivered to the intended buyer' for the purpose of 'exploitation, namely slavery or practices similar to slavery'.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues or want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, the Childhelp USA National Child Abuse Hotline (1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453) operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and receives calls from throughout the United States, Canada, US Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico.
Joe Yates