The grandmother of the six-year-old South African girl whose mom sold her to a 'healer' has made a desperate plea to her own daughter to help track down her missing granddaughter.
Joshlin Smith went missing in February last year when she was just six-years-old, sparking a desperate nationwide manhunt to find the schoolgirl - with her mom, Kelly Smith, telling authorities that she had disappeared from outside her home in Saldanha Bay, not far from Cape Town.
Fifteen months later and Joshlin tragically remains missing.
Smith, 35, was sentenced to life in prison yesterday (May 30) for her involvement in her child's disappearance, alongside two accomplices, with harrowing testimonies revealing how she had offered to sell her three children for roughly $1,100 in local currency.
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One local pastor told the jury that in 2023, he heard the evil parent - whose full name is Racquel Chantel Smith - talk of selling her children, even saying she'd accept as little as $275 for one of them.
Smith's own mom, Amanda Smith-Daniels, 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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Lourentia Lombaard, a friend and neighbor of Smith, alleged that the mother had sold her daughter to a sangoma - a traditional African healer.
Speaking in court, she claimed: "[The] person who [allegedly took] Joshlin wanted her for her eyes and skin."
While a teacher of the little girl also told the jury how during the national manhunt for Joshlin, Smith said that her daughter was 'on a ship, inside a container, and they were on the way to West Africa'.
Over 30 witnesses shared horrifying insights into what may've happened to Joshlin, with Smith's boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and friend Steveno van Rhyn also receiving life sentences.
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Breaking the sentence down, Judge Nathan Erasmus stated: "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, 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."
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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