A South African woman is sentenced to life in prison for selling her young daughter

Kelly Smith, the mother of missing Joshlin Smith, appears in court in Vredenburg, South Africa, Thursday, March 7, 2024. (AP Photo)

Warning: Disturbing content.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — A South African woman was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for selling her 6-year-old daughter.

Kelly Smith was sentenced by a judge alongside two others, her boyfriend and another man, who also received life sentences. All three were convicted earlier this month on kidnapping and human trafficking charges.

Smith’s daughter, Joshlin, went missing in February 2024 when she was 6, sparking a nationwide hunt by police in South Africa. She has still not been found.

Smith, boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and their friend Steveno van Rhyn were sentenced to life terms for human trafficking and 10 years each for kidnapping.

Their sentences were read out by Judge Nathan Erasmus at a sports centre in the west coast town of Saldanha Bay. The trial was moved to the sports centre so members of the local community could attend.

Smith — whose full name is Racquel Chantel Smith — was initially a figure of sympathy when her daughter went missing. Community members rallied around her and volunteered to help police search for Joshlin in the sand dunes near their poor neighbourhood of shacks close to Saldanha Bay, around 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of Cape Town.

A photograph of Joshlin smiling and with her hair tied in pigtails was broadcast by news stations across South Africa during the hunt for her.

Smith said she had left Joshlin with Appollis on the day she disappeared, but the case took a shocking twist when Smith was arrested.

A woman testified during the trial that Smith had told her she and the two men had sold Joshlin for around US$1,000 to a traditional healer who wanted the child for her body parts.

The judge’s verdict did not make any conclusions on who the child was sold to or exactly what happened to her, but said she had been sold for slavery or practices similar to slavery.

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The Associated Press