A woman who committed the ultimate betrayal will spend her life behind bars. On Thursday, Judge Nathan Erasmus found Kelly Smith guilty of selling her 6-year-old daughter Joshlin Smith to feed her drug addiction, sentencing her to life imprisonment for trafficking. More than a year has passed since the little girl vanished. The community still searches desperately for the sweet girl who should have been safe at home.
Kelly didn’t work alone in this evil crime. Her boyfriend, Jacquen Appollis, and their accomplice Steve van Rhyn also faced conviction alongside her. The three planned something against every human instinct. Consumed by her craving for methamphetamine (locally known as “tik“), crossed every moral boundary. She sold her child for drugs.
A Disappearance That Shattered a Community
Little Joshlin disappeared from her home in Middelpos, Saldanha, South Africa, on February 19, 2024. Her mother told police she had gone missing while playing outside, and the community helped search for her. But officers noticed something wrong with Kelly’s behavior. Most mothers would be upset and worried, but she stayed strangely calm. Then came a TikTok video where she said her daughter was “beautiful with blue eyes and that it might be human trafficking.”
Everything changed when the police found out the terrible truth. She had sold her daughter to a traditional healer for drug money. Police arrested three adults and discovered an evil plan.
Justice Served in a Packed Courtroom But Where is Joshlin Smith?
The courtroom buzzed with tension. Life for human trafficking. Ten additional years for kidnapping. Kelly sat motionless throughout, her expression empty. When the judge finished speaking, she stood up and walked out as casually as if leaving a coffee shop.
Across the room, Joshlin’s grandmothers, Amanda Smith-Daniels and Rita Yon, collapsed into each other’s arms, sobbing. You could see they were grieving for the missing little girl and for Kelly, whose choices had destroyed everything.
The courtroom erupted with angry voices that followed Kelly as she left. Outside, protesters held signs demanding answers about Joshlin’s fate. Despite everything, some of Kelly’s supporters still believed in her innocence and looked furious at the verdict. Legal proceedings had concluded, but the most painful question remained: Where is Joshlin?
When Addiction Becomes a Monster
Captain Wesley Lombard spent months studying Kelly’s psychology. “She was the dominant force in this case,” he told sources. “It was important for me to know who Kelly Smith is so that I could understand her way of thinking.” What he discovered was a woman whose humanity had been hollowed out by drugs.
The warning signs appeared early. Sergeant Felecia Johnson remembered their first interview clearly. “She was strangely calm. Usually, when we talk to mothers whose children have disappeared, they don’t want to do interviews and will ask why we don’t start searching. But she wasn’t worried.” Instead of desperately seeking her daughter, Kelly was making TikTok videos. In one, she said her daughter was “beautiful with blue eyes and that it might be human trafficking.” Officers would later realize she had revealed more than she meant to.
Sergeant Dawid Fortuin, a father himself, found this disturbing. “My children are the same age as Kelly’s children. How can you make videos when your child is gone?”
A Web of Deception
This wasn’t a crime of desperation. She manipulated her boyfriend Appollis and convinced Van Rhyn to help coordinate the handover. The three worked together on a plan fueled by Kelly’s drug addiction. Nkosinathi Sangcozi noted something else wrong. She didn’t file the first missing person report for her daughter, thecommunity did.
But Kelly made a mistake. When questioned about that day, she remembered every detail perfectly. Her memory was so detailed. It sounded like she had practiced her story over and over.
The Woman She Used to Be
The Kelly Smith who did this wasn’t the woman her community once knew. She used to be the mother who would confront anyone who even looked at her children wrong. She protected them fiercely.
Tik poisoned that woman entirely. The methamphetamine addiction rotted her brain, turning a mother’s love into a sick craving and fierce protection into vile betrayal. “We are still waiting for that Kelly who would protect her children with everything in her to show up for Joshlin. We never saw it when we started looking for Joshlin,” Captain Lombard said.
The drugs had stolen her soul. The woman who once stood between her children and harm had become the harm itself.
The Search Goes On For Joshlin Smith
The legal case is over, but the search continues. The leads about the traditional healer haven’t led to Joshlin yet, but the investigation team won’t stop looking.
Captain Lombard shared the team’s perspective. “As a team, over the past three years, we have searched for and found 100 people who were missing and Joshlin is the only one we haven’t been able to find yet,” he said. Those 100 successful cases give them hope. If they could bring those families back together, they believe they can find Joshlin too.
Victory Without Resolution
Kelly Smith begins her life sentence, but what victory is this? A woman sits in prison while her Joshlin remains lost. For her family and the investigators, justice means one thing. They need to bring that little girl home.
Captain Lombard finds strength in faith. “The investigation was not easy, but the challenges became stepping stones,” he shared. “We learnt to stay on our knees. We pray. Our spiritual side carried us through. We are not without hope for Joshlin. Without hope, there is no life.”
While Kelly settles into prison, Captain Lombard’s team continues searching. They’ve found 100 missing people over three years, but Joshlin remains elusive. “We are not without hope for Joshlin. Without hope, there is no life,” Lombard said. That belief keeps them moving forward, convinced that somewhere, a little girl is waiting to come home.
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