Racquel "Kelly" Smith, who was convicted on kidnapping and trafficking charges earlier in May after authorities claimed she possibly sold her daughter to a local healer, was sentenced on Thursday, May 29, alongside boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and friend Steveno van Rhyn, according to CNN, CBS News and the BBC. The sentencing comes more than a year after Smith's daughter, Joshlin Smith, went missing from her Saldanha Bay home in February 2024. She remains missing.
A South African woman will spend the rest of her life behind bars for the heinous crime of selling her 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.
In a trial that shocked the country, a witness said Kelly Smith told her that she had sold her daughter to a sangoma, or traditional healer, for $1,100 and that the girl was desired for her “eyes and skin”.
