A South African woman was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for selling her 6-year-old daughter.
Kelly Smith was sentenced by a judge alongside two others, her boyfriend and another man, who also received life sentences.
All three were convicted earlier this month on kidnapping and human trafficking charges.
Neighbors and residents from the community came together to support her and offered to assist the authorities in searching for Joshlin in the sandy dunes near their impoverished area of makeshift homes near Saldanha Bay, approximately 120 kilometers north of Cape Town.
A photograph of Joshlin smiling and with her hair tied in pigtails was broadcast by news stations across South Africa during the hunt for her.
Smith said she had left Joshlin with Appollis on the day she disappeared, but the case took a shocking twist when Smith was arrested.
During the court proceedings, a witness shared that Smith had confided in her about selling Joshlin along with two other individuals for about $1000 to a traditional healer who supposedly intended to use the child’s body parts.
Although the judge’s ruling did not definitively determine the identity of the buyer or the specific fate of Joshlin, it did state that the child had been trafficked for exploitative purposes akin to slavery.
