A South African woman named Racquel Smith will spend the rest of her life in prison after she trafficked her six-year-old daughter, Joshlin, back in 2024. Reportedly, Smith sold her daughter to a local healer for her “eyes and skin.” The girl remains missing to this day.
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According to CBS News, Joshlin went missing from her Saldanha Bay home on February 19, 2024. Back then, the search for Joshlin impacted the whole nation of South Africa, moved by Racquel Smith’s apparent sadness over her daughter’s disappearance.
However, investigations soon revealed that Smith was the one behind her daughter’s disappearance. According to prosecutors and even some witnesses, Racquel Smith had actually trafficked her own daughter to an unidentified healer, as per the BBC.
‘Eyes And Skin’
One witness, one of Smith’s neighbors, testified that the healer wanted Joshlin for “her eyes and skin.” A local pastor also testified that Smith told him she planned to sell her children for $1,100 each. According to the pastor, she was willing to let go of her children for an outrageous $275 sum.
Labeling the trafficking “something silly,” Smith then told Joshlin’s teacher that her daughter was “on a ship, inside a container, and they were on the way to West Africa.”
According to the BBC, the 35-year-old woman was convicted of kidnapping and human trafficking back on May 2. Her boyfriend, Jacquen Appollis, and her friend, Steveno van Rhyn, were convicted on the same charges. All three were behind Joshlin’s trafficking, who is also believed to have been sold into slavery.
Present at the court during her Smith’s sentencing was Amanda Smith Daniels, Joshlin’s grandmother. She sat while hearing the horrifying victim impact statements, with the rest of the courtroom crying, even the translator. Amanda wore a white shirt with Joshlin’s face printed on it.
During her sentencing, Judge Nathan Erasmus said that Smith was manipulative and didn’t show any remorse for her actions.
“There is nothing that I can find that is redeeming and deserving of a lesser sentence than the harshest I can impose,” Erasmus said.
As per CBS News, Judge Erasmus sentenced Racquel Smith, Appollis, and van Rhyn to life imprisonment for human trafficking. They will serve 10 years in prison concurrently for the kidnapping charge.
Racquel Smith cried as she heard she would spend the rest of her life in prison.