Mum's vile plot to sell daughter, 6, 'for eyes and skin' as fate remains unknown

KELLY SMITH HAS BEEN JAILED FOR LIFE AFTER BEING FOUND GUILTY OF KIDNAPPING AND TRAFFICKING HER OWN CHILD, WHILE THE FATE OF THE SIX-YEAR-OLD SCHOOLGIRL REMAINS WORRYINGLY UNKNOWN 15:35, 29

May 2025 By the age of 15, Raquel "Kelly" Smith was addicted to drugs after growing up with her maternal grandmother in a neglectful household. By the time she gave birth to her

daughter Joshlin, she was living intermittently in a shelter for abused women. The troubled young woman later went to rehab and a family friend, Natasha Andrews, stepped into care for

Joshlin. Natasha wanted to adopt the tot but Smith refused and instead, Joshlin grew up in a shack made out of corrugated iron in the impoverished settlement of Middelpos in South

Africa's Saldanha Bay. Some witnesses described Smith as a good mother to Joshlin and her brother, saying she had carried out odd jobs so she could feed her family. But the

mother-of-three would later be accused of masterminding a sickening plot to sell her own daughter. READ MORE: South African mum who sold daughter, 6, 'for her eyes and skin' gets

life sentence On the day Joshlin vanished, Laurentia Lombaard was smoking drugs with Smith's boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and the couple's friend Steveno van Rhyn at Smith's

shack. Joshlin and her brother had stayed home because they didn't have clean uniforms and at some point during the afternoon, the six-year-old schoolgirl disappeared. The adults

reported her missing at 9pm that day, which was February 19, 2024 and Joshlin hasn't been seen since. Smith said she had left her child with her boyfriend when she disappeared and a

highly-publicised search, which saw one minister offer a £41,000 reward for her safe return and Joshlin's image broadcast around South Africa, proved fruitless. Article continues below

Chillingly however, witnesses began to come forward, with a local pastor testifying that Smith had talked about selling her children for £850 each. One said she had planned to sell her

daughter, who was wanted for her fair skin and bright green eyes, to a traditional healer called a 'sangoma'. Joshlin's teacher would later testify that after the search

progressed, Smith said that her daughter was already "on a ship, inside a container, and they were on the way to West Africa". Article continues below This week Smith, from South

Africa, was jailed alongside Appollis and van Rhyn after being found guilty of kidnapping and trafficking her daughter. No conclusions were formed about Joshlin's exact fate after the

three adults conspired to sell her. All three were given life terms, with Smith called a manipulator and teller of "bald-faced lies" during the sentencing. Western Cape police

commissioner Thembisile Patekile told local media the search continued for the missing schoolgirl, saying: "We will not rest until we find [out] what happened to Joshlin. We are

continuing day and night looking for her." Natasha, the family friend who had wanted to take Joshlin into her own family, added heartbreakingly: "We just want to hug you again. You

are our flower, our baby and our green-eyed child."