Mom Sells Her Daughter To Organ Harvesters For $1100

Mom Sells Her Daughter To Organ Harvesters For $1100

The harbor town of Saldanha Bay, tucked 35 miles away from the restlessness of South Africa’s Western Cape, is best known for its steel exports, fishing boats, and the long curve of coastline that draws locals out in the early evenings. It is a quiet place mostly, and for the people who live in the informal settlement of Middlepos, nestled behind the industrial stretch of the port, life moves slowly, one small routine at a time.

That is where Joshlin Smith was born on October 23, 2017. The youngest of three siblings, Joshlin lived with her mother, Raquel Kelly Smith, and her older brother and sister in a small shack, one of several hundreds in Middlepos. Joshlin’s father, Jose Emke, had not been a permanent figure in her life. According to family and friends, Jose had been in and out of Joshlin’s life over the years, allowing Kelly to become her primary caregiver.

It is unclear if he was also the father of Joshlin’s other two siblings. But what we do know is that Joshlin grew up in what can be best described as a volatile yet close-knit home. No, the family did not have much. They lived in a one-room shack in a weathered settlement several miles away from urban living. Did Joshlin have access to everything a kid could ever dream of? No. But she was described as a happy child. The area was known for its residents’ rampant drug use, and Kelly had unfortunately fallen victim to addiction during her teenage years. Still, according to friends and family, she appeared to be a devout and loving mother, and she was particularly fond of her youngest, Joshlin.

Best remembered by neighbors, friends, teachers, and family members as a bubbly, blue-gray-eyed blonde girl with a smile that could light up a room, Joshlin had a spark in her that was hard to deny. Despite the family struggles, Kelly at one point seemed devoted to giving her kids a better life. In January 2024, Joshlin had just become a Grade 1 learner at Diazville Primary School. A picture of her from her class’s graduation photo, smiling and holding up a certificate, was framed in the family’s makeshift living room.

There is one person we have not introduced yet, and that is Jacquen Appollis. At some point, Kelly brought home Joshlin’s new father figure and announced that he would be sharing the family’s already cramped shack with them. At the time, the family barely had enough money to get by for themselves, much less add another mouth to feed. Professionally, Appollis worked as a gardener and Kelly made ends meet as a domestic worker. However, neighbors claimed that they barely ever saw Appollis leave the home. They claimed that he was always wandering off into the distance, fueled by drugs, or he was completely passed out somewhere. Yet, this was the man Kelly felt comfortable leaving her child home alone with.

You see, Kelly had never experienced much stability in her life either. In a Facebook post by someone claiming to be Kelly’s brother, Kelly was the oldest of the bunch and was sent by their mother to live with their maternal grandmother in Saldanha when she was young. Meanwhile, the rest of the family had relocated to Cape Town. Kelly’s alleged brother claimed that this was because she was the only sibling who had a different father and things were just easier for the family this way. That being said, the man who made the post, known only as M&R Daniels, claimed that Kelly had been given access to everything they had gotten as well. From education to spending money, Kelly was well taken care of. But then something happened when she entered her teens: she discovered drugs.

Kelly first entered the system when her grandmother called social workers in 2017, alleging that she had just witnessed her granddaughter hitting, swearing at, and threatening her son. The grandmother also claimed that when she tried to intervene, Kelly had reportedly threatened her too before running out of the house. While she did ask for a protective order at the time, Kelly’s grandmother never really followed through with it and instead sent her granddaughter to a drug treatment facility while the two kids lived with her. Yes, this was back in 2016 when Kelly was still pregnant with Joshlin. So, the possibility of her using drugs during that time is more likely than not.

From 2018 to 2020, Kelly stayed in and out of drug treatment centers before eventually coming back to her grandmother’s house to take back her kids and announced that she had reconciled with Jose. Kelly’s grandmother had reportedly gotten sick of her attitude by then, claiming that she was not the bright young girl that she had raised. There was nothing she could do about the situation; she gave the kids back to their mother as Kelly made her way back to Jose in Middlepos.

Natasha Andrews and her husband claimed to have met Kelly at church back in 2018. Andrews could see that Kelly was struggling and they offered to care for young Joshlin while she looked for work. Kelly was thankful for all the help that she could get, but a few hours would soon turn to a few weeks. Natasha claimed that once, Kelly had not asked about her daughter’s well-being for weeks. Andrews had other reasons to be concerned as well; they saw bruises. Natasha revealed in court that she noticed bruises around Joshlin’s arms and suspected that Jose had been harming her and Kelly. Confronted, Kelly admitted that life with Jose was miserable and she lived in constant fear of him. Kelly reportedly had marks of her own from when Jose lost his temper with her.

This prompted the Andrews to begin a formal adoption process for Joshlin. And Natasha claimed that Kelly was all for this idea. She stated that Kelly went as far as meeting with a social worker to begin the formal adoption process, but eventually, she backed out when Jose contested it. The Andrews continued to be a fixture in Joshlin’s life, and Natasha claimed that they could not, in good conscience, abandon the young girl they had grown to love. While the formal adoption process never took place, Natasha claimed that Kelly would leave Joshlin with the Andrews for several days on end. Kelly claimed that this was to keep her daughter safe while she navigated her relationship with Jose. Meanwhile, her two older kids were left in the care of friends and family as well until Kelly officially ended her relationship with Jose sometime before 2023.

When Reneese Civarine, Kelly’s lawyer, asked if Natasha believed that Kelly could provide Joshlin a stable and loving home on her own away from Jose, Natasha replied yes. So, what went wrong here?

On February 19, 2024, Kelly returned home to Middlepos after working at her employer’s, the Zaggers’ residence. According to what she told police, Joshlin and her brother had not gone to school that day because their school uniforms were dirty, and Kelly did not have the money for detergent to clean them. Kelly claimed that she could not find either Joshlin or Appollis, but eventually managed to track him down smoking in another shack. When asked about Joshlin, Appollis looked her in the face with a blank expression and claimed that he had not seen her since 9:00 a.m. that day. As it was almost dark out, a panicked Kelly ran to ask her neighbors if they had seen her daughter. A few hours later, the police were called and Joshlin Smith was reported missing. She was last seen wearing a blue t-shirt and blue denim trousers, identified by a birthmark on her right arm.

The residents of Middlepos had nothing except one another. So, when news spread of a young six-year-old girl that had not been seen since earlier that morning, search parties began scavenging through the nearby dunes almost immediately. Namhla Tinzy, one of Kelly’s neighbors, claimed that she traveled with her all the way to Diazville, searching for Joshlin, but nothing came up. Namhla later told investigators that Kelly was a nervous wreck, crying and yelling for her daughter. Yet, she was somehow calm to the point of making jokes with her on the way back. Now, Namhla was not the only one who was unnerved by Kelly’s behavior. In fact, police officers who traveled all the way from Cape Town to investigate Joshlin’s disappearance on February 20 claimed that she was blasting music from her shack.

Kelly recalled the sequence of events from the 19th again. She had left her two kids in her boyfriend’s care while she went to work at the Zaggers’ residence. When she came back, Joshlin was not there. Naturally, the police assumed that the person who could tell them more about Joshlin’s whereabouts was Appollis. The police eventually found him smoking in a shed somewhere off in the distance. They were accompanied by Kelly, who immediately asked her boyfriend if he had filled the gas tank and nothing else. The police claimed that Appollis was less than forthcoming with information when asked, and instead, he seemed jittery. All he claimed was that he lost track of the day when he was meant to be taking care of Joshlin and did not know where she had gone. A week later, on February 27, he was re-interviewed by the police. This time, Appollis claimed that while he felt responsible for Joshlin’s disappearance, he did not know where she was.

According to the South African Police Service, a child goes missing every 5 hours in South Africa. And while every case is critical and should receive the utmost attention, Joshlin’s case had blown up to an extent that Kelly could not have imagined or wanted. Residents of Middlepos searched far and wide and investigators from Cape Town came to assist with the search. Kelly was interviewed by local news stations and there were missing persons flyers for Joshlin everywhere you could look. People quite literally could not rest until that young girl was found alive and well, and Kelly claimed that she thoroughly believed her daughter would come back to her safe and sound.

At the same time, however, an investigator claimed that Kelly almost seemed giddy with all the attention that she had been receiving from the whole ordeal, claiming that her daughter had made her famous. Kelly’s estranged sister, Michaela Daniels, claimed to have received a voice note on Facebook Messenger from Kelly in January 2024, a month before Joshlin’s disappearance. Michaela was a police constable attached to the public order policing in the Northern Cape, and she stated that Kelly randomly initiated a conversation with her one day, asking about her well-being. The conversation was short-lived but picked up again on February 21, 2024, when Kelly informed her sister that Joshlin went missing. Michaela was worried, naturally, and stated that she tried to ask Kelly for more information, only to be left on “read” for several hours before eventually getting a response. It read, “My sister, my child is here in the informal settlement. Someone wants to sell my child, but Saldanha is currently a hot spot.” Michaela claimed that she tried to get a hold of Kelly over the next several days, asking her about Joshlin’s whereabouts and more questions about Appollis and his relationship with the kids. Kelly responded a week later, and I quote, “My sister, the questions you are asking are what police already asked. I know you are a police officer, but I am not going to answer these questions again.”

Kelly’s grieving mother persona did not stick for long, and police were called to take her and Appollis into protective custody after neighbors in Middlepos began threatening the duo for acting callously about Joshlin’s disappearance. In the meantime, on March 1, 2024, Jose Emke called the police to reveal that he believed his ex had sold their child to pay off a bad debt that she had incurred a few months ago. The search for Joshlin Smith began to intensify, as it had now been over 11 days since the young girl was reported missing. Kelly and Appollis were not of any help, with Appollis changing his testimony time and time again, claiming that Joshlin left to play with friends and her brother was picked up by his godfather, at which point he left the residence too.

And now, in the middle of it all, Jose claimed that Kelly sold Joshlin. Theresa Laru, a member of local government and part of the search team looking for Joshlin, also raised suspicions over the whole ordeal. She told news teams they had been searching for Joshlin for days, yet nothing had turned up. It was almost like the six-year-old vanished into thin air, but that is impossible. In an overcrowded settlement like Middlepos, during daytime, no less, how could a young girl just disappear without a trace? Kelly had been removed from Middlepos during this time for her safety, as her community started to suspect her of foul play in her daughter’s disappearance.

During this time, word got around the community that Kelly had sold her daughter to a sangoma. Now, for those of you who might not know, a sangoma is a traditional healer in southern Africa. Often viewed as a spiritual guide, herbalist, and medium, they communicate with ancestors through rituals, dreams, and divinations to diagnose and treat physical, emotional, or spiritual issues. For believers, they are magical healers. For skeptics, they are delusional.

On March 5, 2024, two weeks after Joshlin’s disappearance, police arrested four people: Raquel Kelly Smith, her boyfriend Jacquen Appollis, her friend Stephano van Rhyn, and a local healer in the Middlepos region, Phumza Sigaqa. Kelly and Appollis for obvious reasons, and Stephano for the fact that several reports indicated he was at the Smith residence on the day Joshlin disappeared. According to an investigator, he had approached Stephano a day after Joshlin was reported missing and he was the first one to put forward the sangoma theory, possibly because he was under the influence of substances, but the police could not rule anything out at this point. Now, was Phumza the sangoma they had sold Joshlin to? Was this case on its way to getting solved? Unfortunately, it can never be that easy. While Phumza was indeed regarded as a healer in that region, many suspected that she was used as a scapegoat. Phumza was in custody for one week, during which she claimed that she was repeatedly assaulted into confessing that she had killed Joshlin to harvest her skin and eyes. When she denied the accusations, she was assaulted again. Eventually, after a week of no real evidence, and the people of Middlepos establishing an alibi for her, Phumza was released.

In her place, however, police brought in another woman, someone they had some evidence against: Chantel Lombard, a known drug addict and a friend of Kelly’s, was reportedly named as a person of interest when Stephano claimed that she had been with them at the home when Kelly had sold her daughter. She initially denied the allegations, but eventually turned state’s witness in exchange for a lesser charge. The three other accused in Joshlin Smith’s disappearance pled not guilty. It was now Lombard’s word against theirs. But first, prosecutors had to establish a timeline.

On February 19, 2024, Kelly left her two younger kids, Joshlin and her brother, in her boyfriend Appollis’s care. She took her oldest daughter to school and went to work at the Zaggers’ home. Later on, this was around 9:00 a.m. She then came back from work sometime around 1:00 p.m. Around 2:00 p.m., she returned home. She had taken money from her employer, Kelly Zaggers, claiming it was to buy detergent to wash the kids’ uniforms. It was not. Kelly instead used that money to buy “tik,” the local name for crystal meth in the Western Cape region. Joined by Stephano, the couple used a substance before Kelly announced that she was due back at work. She claimed that her kids were in the shack during this time, bathing. When she left, Appollis picked up the story, claiming that Chantel came over for a few hours and offered to smoke with him. He obliged while Joshlin went out to play. After they were done, Appollis made his way into another shack where he passed out until Kelly woke him up, asking where Joshlin was.

Detective Constable Rafale Seope, a member of the family violence and child protection unit, claimed that she interviewed both Chantel and Stephano on the night that Joshlin was reported missing. Asked by the state’s prosecutor about Lombard’s demeanor, the detective said she was jittery and scratching her arms and head. She said, “I had already learned that she was using drugs, so I asked her if she had used any drugs on that day, and her answer was, ‘not yet.'” The detective claimed that Stephano brought up the theory that Joshlin might have been taken by sangomas. She said Stephano claimed that Lombard had left with Joshlin and did not come back with her while he was there. According to Detective Constable Seope, I don’t know if there was a question posed to him about what he thought happened to the child, but he said he suspects Lombard’s boyfriend, Ayanda, might have given the child to a sangoma.

In March 2024, police found blood stains on a discarded bed sheet and pillow cover. It was later found that the blood was not Joshlin’s blood. Kelly Zaggers claimed that the day after Joshlin’s disappearance, she noticed a shift in Kelly’s demeanor. She claimed to have begged her mother’s employee to share any information she had with the police. Mrs. Zaggers claimed that she had a hunch that Kelly was protecting someone and asked Kelly to consider the safety of her child. Mrs. Zaggers claimed that she noticed inconsistencies in Kelly’s behavior, not something she would have expected from a mother whose daughter had just been reported missing. She also claimed that when she pressed Kelly for more information, Kelly began talking about foreigners having Joshlin, but would not reveal any more information about the subject. Mrs. Zaggers claimed that she watched Kelly sleep peacefully that night, questioning if it was actually her child that had just gone missing.

Edna Maar, a Grade 1 teacher, claimed that Kelly had told her the day after Joshlin’s disappearance that she received a phone call from a mysterious Nigerian man. Kelly appeared eerily calm as she claimed that the man had told her that a child—no specification that it was Joshlin—had been shipped in a container and was on her way to West Africa. When Edna asked Kelly if she had revealed this information to the police, Kelly claimed that she feared retribution from the Saldanha people and that she was not planning on it.

Now, during this time, the rumor of the sangoma began to spread, with former friends and associates of Kelly’s claiming that she told them that Saldanha would become a hot spot in January or February of 2024. According to Steven Coatsy, a former friend who later took to the witness stand, Kelly would routinely joke about selling Joshlin for money. The joke started all the way back in August of 2023. But why did no one report it? This was the question that Judge Nathan Erasmus asked the court when he presided over the case at the Western Cape High Court.

Joshlin was still missing in April 2025 when the court case commenced as more and more public interest developed in the matter day by day. Due to the number of people who had gathered at court to witness the testimonies and uncover the truth about Joshlin’s disappearance, Lombard’s testimony, and the case of the sangoma, the case was actually heard in a community center. The charges brought against the trio were for kidnapping and human trafficking. Although the prosecution claimed that they had over 90 witnesses who were willing to testify that Kelly was involved in her daughter’s disappearance with Appollis and Stephano acting as accomplices, people were only interested in one testimony: What did Lombard have to say? And how involved was she in Joshlin Smith’s disappearance?

The trial against Kelly, Appollis, and Stephano spanned over nine days, with several witnesses being called on the defense and prosecution’s behalf. Carlan Zaggers, Mrs. Zaggers’ mother, took to the stand to testify on Kelly’s behalf. She claimed that they were antagonizing a struggling mother who put her kids above her own needs despite her many struggles. Kelly wept as Carlan described her as a good mother. She said, “One day, Kelly came to my house with her children. Circumstances made Kelly come to me. She had lots of troubles. She had very lovable children and she raised them well. I will say it again. I felt sorry for Kelly and I saw what she was going through. I am also a mother. Even during difficult times, she was a good mother for her children.”

Meanwhile, Kelly Zaggers claimed that she found it hard to believe that Kelly Smith was not involved in her daughter’s disappearance in the slightest. She claimed that during a televised news segment at her home where Kelly was being asked about Joshlin’s disappearance, she had to be the one to instruct Kelly to appear somewhat grief-stricken over her child’s disappearance. The testimonies bounced between painting Kelly as an awful mother to being a godsend. A social worker testified that a few days into being taken into police custody, Kelly put in a request to meet with her other two children. The social worker was there during the meeting, claiming that her older daughter ran up to her mother while Joshlin’s brother took a few moments to ease up to her. Despite this, the social worker claimed that Kelly appeared to show genuine concern for her kids, hugging them, asking them about their well-being, and telling them that she would be back with them soon enough.

On day eight of the trial, Steven Coatsy revealed that Kelly had concocted her plan sometime in August 2023, resolving to sell her children, all of them, by January or February 2024. Kelly appeared unamused during Steven’s revelations, even yawning as he detailed her plans to settle for 5,000 rand for the children if she was not provided the full 20,000 South African rand. The revelation also detailed how Kelly claimed that in early 2024, everyone in Diazville would be searching for a missing child with no real clue on the child’s whereabouts.

And now it was time for Chantel Lombard’s testimony. In a shocking and heartbreaking revelation, she recalled a conversation she had had with Kelly right before her daughter’s disappearance, and I quote, “She said the person who was looking for Joshlin was looking for her because they wanted her eyes and skin.” Lombard’s testimony was the “Hail Mary” that the prosecution was hoping for. However, the court determined that the validity of Lombard’s testimony—someone who was once accused of taking part in the plot to sell Joshlin—would have to be determined as being truthful before being used by either defense or the prosecution in the case.

On day eight of the trial, Chantel took the stand and revealed that she had gotten acquainted with the trio through her boyfriend, who would routinely sell drugs to both Kelly and her boyfriend, Appollis. She claimed that she had known Kelly the longest, almost a year, and became acquainted with Appollis through her. She also claimed that she did not know Stephano that well, only having met him about 6 to 7 months before Joshlin went missing. Eventually, she revealed that she had in fact been at the Smith residence on the day of Joshlin’s alleged sale. She claimed that Kelly had packed a black cooler bag with a sweater and underwear for Joshlin and instructed Appollis to take care of the girl until 2:00 p.m. while she was at work. According to Lombard’s testimony, Kelly had stated that a woman would be coming to pick Joshlin up at 2:00, at which point she would escort her daughter to the woman herself.

Sure enough, according to Lombard, the woman came to the residence at 2:00 in a white blouse, green skirt, and a green headscarf with dots over her face. Lombard claimed to have seen Kelly prepare Joshlin with the same black cooler bag and enter a car with her daughter and the other woman. The woman then turned to the remaining three adults at the home and instructed them not to tell the police that Joshlin had been taken and instead to file a missing person’s report after a day. Kelly appeared guilty while Appollis seemed like he could not care less. Lombard claimed that Kelly told her she had done something awful to Joshlin before handing her boyfriend 20,000 rand. Hours later, when Kelly had reported her daughter missing and had arrived at Lombard’s residence with the police, asking her if she knew where Joshlin was, Lombard asked her why she was not telling the police about the woman, the sale, and whatever had just happened. Lombard claimed that Kelly offered her 1,000 rand while she offered Stephano 1,200 rand and the remaining would be split between her and Appollis.

Lombard expressed remorse on the stand when asked how she felt following the incident and regarding her involvement. She said, “I feel very hurt. I am a mother of four and I did not know the plans Kelly and Appollis had. I only overheard them at a later stage about plans to sell the child. I tried to stop her, but she would not listen. Wherever Joshlin is, I appeal to whoever may have the child. Please bring her home. I hope the child is alive. I am so sorry that I was involved.”

Kelly had no emotion throughout the trial. Her defense leaned on the lack of physical evidence but never addressed her inconsistencies from the beginning. They said the case was based on speculation and rumors. Appollis’s lawyer stuck to that story, saying there was no forensic evidence tying his client to anything. Stephano’s defense was more direct; he blamed Lombard and suggested she had done more than she admitted. But the court was not convinced.

On May 2, 2025, Judge Nathan Erasmus delivered the verdict in a quiet courtroom filled with reporters, families, and protesters waiting outside. He found Kelly Smith, Jacquen Appollis, and Stephano van Rhyn guilty of kidnapping and human trafficking. He said their behavior after Joshlin’s disappearance was not that of distressed caregivers, but people trying to cover their tracks. Even though Joshlin’s body had never been found, he made it clear that the evidence, including phone records, testimony, and behavioral patterns, spoke volumes.

The sentencing was postponed to May 23. The court stated that additional witnesses might be called and that forensic specialists were still reviewing Jacquen’s phone and vehicle, which had not been thoroughly examined earlier in the investigation. But none of the three convicted individuals had offered any new information, shown any kind of remorse, or said where Joshlin was, which was why justice had not been served yet for the people of Saldanha Bay.

Joshlin’s paternal grandmother, Rita Yan, said she was satisfied with the judge’s ruling but urged Kelly to reveal where the child is. She said, “The verdict is good, but Kelly has not told us where Joshlin is. That breaks my heart.” The Western Cape Police Commissioner confirmed the case remains open, noting that police have even searched a ship in the UK for 3 days. He criticized Kelly for not testifying, saying she chose to remain silent, but “we will keep investigating.”

A few days after the trio were sentenced in Joshlin Smith’s case, the mayor of Saldanha Bay, Andre Truter, confirmed that the house where Joshlin disappeared had been set on fire. He reported that no one had been injured in the suspected arson, but that no arrests had also been made. Joshlin’s name still appears on South Africa’s national missing person’s database. The photo has not changed. Jail sentences will follow, but the question that matters the most—where is Joshlin?—was never answered. Her case is still open. According to the Western Cape police, investigators continue to follow every lead.

If you drive through Middlepos today, you might still spot a picture of Joshlin Smith, bright-eyed and smiling, with the words “missing” written at the bottom. Joshlin Smith, born October 23, 2017. Disappeared February 19, 2024. Never found.