South African Woman Sentenced For Selling 6-Year-Old Daughter

In Cape Town, on Thursday, Raquel "Kelly" Smith, 35, was sentenced to life in prison for human trafficking and kidnapping her daughter, Joshlin, who went missing in February 2024, and has yet to be found, according to the Associated Press and BBC.

Smith -- whom the BBC described as a drug addict -- was sentenced along with her alleged accomplices: boyfriend Jacquen Appollis, and their friend Steveno van Rhyn. The trio all received life in prison for human trafficking and 10 years each for the kidnapping charges.

"On the human trafficking charge, you are sentenced to life imprisonment. On the kidnapping charge, you are sentenced to 10 years imprisonment," Judge Nathan Erasmus said in the courtroom, per BBC, which reported that those in attendance applauded his statement.

"There is nothing that I can find that is redeeming or deserving of a lesser sentence," he added.

According to AP, the trial took place at a sports center in the coastal town of Saldanha Bay, near Cape Town, where it was moved to accommodate members of the local community.

Joshlin went missing in February 2024 when she was 6, with the community initially supporting Smith, and helping local police in a nationwide search to find the child.

About three weeks after her daughter's disappearance, Smith was arrested and charged with kidnapping and selling or trafficking her daughter, according to AP. She and the fellow accused declined to testify during the trial.

During the trial, which lasted eight weeks, a witness claimed Smith and the two men sold Joshlin to a traditional healer, which is known in South Africa as a "sangoma," per BBC. The witness alleged that the healer wanted Joshlin for her body parts, specifically "her eyes and skin."

According to the BBC, a pastor claimed on the stand that he had previously heard Smith speak about selling her children for $20,0000 rand, which is about $1,100 USD. However, she allegedly would have gone as low as $275, the pastor claimed.

Amid the sentence, the judge did not declare to whom or how Joshlin was sold. However, he stated she had been sold for slavery or practices similar to it, per the AP. The BBC reported that the courtroom was emotional, with the court interpreter, who translated victim impact statements from Afrikaans to English, even reportedly becoming choked up.

Smith's mother, Amanda Smith-Daniels, gave a victim impact statement, reportedly asking her daughter, "How do you sleep [and] live with yourself?" Smith's mother now takes care of her oldest children, while the youngest is under the care of her father, per the BBC.

On Wednesday, the courtroom was shown a video clip of a laughing Joshlin, leaving Smith -- and the courtroom -- in tears.

Joshlin's whereabouts are still unknown.

While speaking with the outlet, Bianca van Aswegen, a criminologist and national coordinator at the Missing Children to South Africa, that despite Smith and her co-accused's life sentences, "the matter of fact is that nobody knows where Joshlin is and I think that's the big question that South Africa is still asking".