On Thursday, a South African mother was sentenced to life in prison after selling her 6-year-old daughter.
Racquel “Kelly” Smith received a life sentence for trafficking her daughter, Joshlin, and ten years for kidnapping her.
Smith’s boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and their friend Steveno van Rhyn received the same sentences.
“There is nothing I can find that is redeeming and deserving of a lesser sentence than the harshest I can impose,” Judge Nathan Erasmus stated in court.
Joshlin disappeared on February 19, 2024, from the town of Middelpos in South Africa’s Western Cape. She still hasn’t been found.
Witnesses testified in court that Smith sold her daughter for $1,100 to a traditional healer known as a Sangoma, who sought out the girl because of her eyes and skin.
“We will not rest until we know what happened to Joshlin. “We are searching for her day and night,” Western Cape police commissioner Thembisile Patekile told local media.
According to Judge Erasmus, the case left the Middelpos community “fractured.”
According to the BBC, Smith and the other defendants showed no emotion when their sentences were read aloud at the Saldanha community center.
More than 30 witnesses testified during the eight-week trial.
Lourentia Lombaard, a neighbor and friend of Smith’s, testified that Smith told her she sold Joshlin.
A local pastor testified that he overheard Smith discussing selling her children in 2023 for $1,100 each, but she said she would accept $275 each.
