A South African woman was found guilty Friday of kidnapping and selling her 6-year-old daughter in a case that shocked the country. The girl went missing over a year ago and has yet to be found.
Kelly Smith and two men — her boyfriend and their friend — were found guilty of kidnapping and human trafficking in connection with the disappearance of Smith’s 6-year-old daughter, Joshlin, in February 2024.
Smith, whose full name is Racquel Chantel Smith, was initially portrayed as a sympathetic figure when her daughter went missing.
Community members rallied around her and volunteered to assist police in searching for Joshlin in the sand dunes near their impoverished neighborhood of shacks near the west coast town of Saldanha Bay, approximately 75 miles north of Cape Town.
A photograph of Joshlin smiling with her hair tied in pigtails was broadcast by news stations across South Africa, prompting police to launch a nationwide search.
Smith claimed she left Joshlin with her boyfriend on the day she vanished, but the case took an unexpected turn when Smith was arrested.
During the trial, a woman testified that Smith told her that she and the two men sold Joshlin to a traditional healer for around $1,000 in exchange for the child’s body parts. The judge’s decision made no conclusions about who the child was sold to or what happened to her.
Smith, her boyfriend Jacquin Appollis, and their friend Steveno van Rhyn face life in prison, and the judge announced that sentencing hearings will begin next week.
After the guilty verdict was read, Smith wiped tears from her eyes, while Van Rhyn smiled inexplicably, according to BBC.
When Judge Nathan Erasmus read out the guilty verdicts, the trial attendees cheered and applauded.
Smith’s mother attended the hearing and stated afterward that she was “angry” with her daughter and did not want to see her, according to the BBC.
“She must tell me where my grandchild is,” Amanda Daniels-Smith told reporters.
The trial was held in a Saldanha Bay sports center with more space than a courtroom, allowing community members to attend.
According to the BBC, the police said in a statement after the judgment that they would continue their search for Joshlin.
