The harbor town of Sana Bay, tucked thirty-five miles from the restlessness of South Africa’s Western Cape, is known for its steel exports, its fishing boats, and the long curve of coastline that draws locals out in the early evenings. It is a quiet place mostly. For the people who live in the informal settlement of Middleos, nestled behind the industrial stretch of the port, life moves slowly, one small routine at a time. That is where Joshelyn Smith was born on October 23rd, 2017.
The youngest of three siblings, Joshelyn—Josh, to everyone who loved her—lived with her mother, Raquel Kelly Smith, and her older brother and sister in a small shack, one of several hundred in Middleos. Her father, Joseé Mke, had never been a permanent figure. He drifted in and out of her life over the years, which left Kelly as the primary caregiver. The family didn’t have much.
They lived in a one-room shack in a weathered settlement, miles away from any kind of urban comfort. Josh didn’t have access to everything a kid could dream of. But she was described as a happy child, a bubbly, blue-gray-eyed blonde girl with a smile that could light up a room. The area was known for its 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. In January of 2024, Josh had just become a grade 1 learner at Diazville Primary School. A picture of her from class, smiling and holding up a certificate, was framed in the family’s makeshift living room. There is one person we haven’t introduced yet: Jacken Boetta Appalis.
At some point, Kelly brought home Josh’s new father and announced that he would be sharing the family’s already cramped shack with them. At the time, they barely had enough money to get by for themselves, much less add another mouth to feed. Professionally, Boetta worked as a gardener and Kelly made ends meet as a domestic worker. But neighbors claimed they barely ever saw Boetta leave the home.
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 her brother, Kelly was the oldest of the bunch and was sent by their mother to live with their maternal grandmother in Sana when she was young, while the rest of the family relocated to Cape Town.
The alleged brother claimed this was because she was the only sibling who had a different father, and things were just easier for the family this way. He claimed Kelly had been given access to everything they had gotten as well—education, spending money, she 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 claimed that when she tried to intervene, Kelly 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. Instead, she sent her granddaughter to a drug treatment facility while the two kids lived with her.
That was back in 2016, when Kelly was still pregnant with Josh. 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 announce that she had reconciled with Jose. Kelly’s grandmother had reportedly gotten sick of her attitude by then, claiming she was not the bright young girl 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 Middleos. 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 Josh while she looked for work.
Kelly was thankful for all the help she could get, but a few hours would soon turn into a few weeks. Natasha claimed that Kelly hadn’t asked about her daughter’s well-being for weeks. She had other reasons to be concerned too. They saw bruises.
Natasha revealed in court that she noticed bruises around Josh’s arms and suspected that Jose had been harming her. 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 Josh.
And Natasha claimed that Kelly was all for this idea, going as far as meeting with a social worker to begin the process. But eventually she backed out when Jose contested it. The Andrews continued to be a fixture in Josh’s life, and Natasha claimed they couldn’t, in good conscience, abandon the young girl they had grown to love. While the formal adoption never took place, Natasha claimed that Kelly would leave Josh with the Andrews for several days on end.
Kelly claimed 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 Renees Civarine, Kelly’s lawyer, asked if Natasha believed Kelly could provide Josh a stable and loving home on her own, away from Jose, Natasha replied yes. So, what went wrong here?
On February 19th, 2024, Kelly returned home to Middleos after working at her employer’s, the Zagger’s residence. According to what she told police, Josh and her brother hadn’t gone to school that day because their school uniforms were dirty, and Kelly didn’t have the money for detergent to clean them. Kelly claimed she couldn’t find either Josh or Boetta, but eventually managed to track him down smoking in another shack. When asked about Josh, Boetta looked her in the face with a blank expression and claimed he hadn’t 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 Josh 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 Middleos had nothing except one another. So, when news spread of a young six-year-old girl who hadn’t been seen since earlier that morning, search parties began scavenging through the nearby dunes almost immediately. Namla Tinzy, one of Kelly’s neighbors, claimed that she traveled with her all the way to Diazville, searching for Josh, but nothing came up.
Namla later told investigators that Kelly was a nervous wreck, crying and yelling for her daughter. Yet, on the way back, she was somehow calm to the point of making jokes. Now, Namla wasn’t the only one unnerved by Kelly’s behavior. In fact, police officers who traveled all the way from Cape Town to investigate Josh’s disappearance on February 20th claimed that Kelly was blasting music from her shack.
Kelly recalled the sequence of events from the 19th again: she’d left her two kids in her boyfriend’s care while she went to work at the Zagger’s residence. When she came back, Josh wasn’t there. Naturally, the police assumed the person who could tell them more about Josh’s whereabouts was Boetta. 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’d filled the gas tank, and nothing else. The police claimed that Boetta was less than forthcoming with information when asked. Instead, he seemed jittery. All he claimed was that he lost track of the day when he was meant to be taking care of Josh and didn’t know where she had gone.
A week later, on February 27th, he was re-interviewed by the police. This time, Boetta claimed that while he felt responsible for Josh’s disappearance, he didn’t know where she was. According to South African Police Service, a child goes missing every five hours in South Africa. And while every case is critical and should receive the utmost attention, Josh’s case had blown up to an extent that Kelly couldn’t have imagined or wanted.
Residents of Middleos searched far and wide, and investigators from Cape Town came to assist. Kelly was interviewed by local news stations, and there were missing persons flyers for Josh everywhere you could look. People quite literally could not rest until that young girl was found alive and well. Kelly claimed 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 she was 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 of 2024, a month before Josh’s disappearance. Michaela was a police constable attached to the public order policing in 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 21st, 2024, when Kelly informed her sister that Josh had gone 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 Sana is currently a hot spot. ”
Michaela claimed that she tried to get a hold of Kelly over the next several days, asking her about Josh’s whereabouts and more questions about Boetta and his relationship with the kids.
Kelly responded a week later, and I quote, “My sister, the questions you’re asking are what police already asked. I know you’re a police officer, but I am not going to answer these questions again. ”
Kelly’s grieving mother persona didn’t stick for long. Police were called to take her and Boetta into protective custody after neighbors in Middleos began threatening the duo for acting callously about Josh’s disappearance.
In the meantime, on March 1st, 2024, Jose Mke called the police to reveal that he believed his ex had sold their child to pay off a bad debt that she’d incurred a few months ago. The search for Josh Smith began to intensify, as it had now been over eleven days since the young girl was reported missing. Kelly and Boetta weren’t of any help, with Boetta changing his testimony time and time again, claiming that Josh left to play with friends, and her brother was picked up by his godfather at which point he left the residence too. Teresa Laru, a member of local government and part of the search team looking for Josh, also raised suspicions over the whole ordeal.
She told news teams they’d been searching for Josh for days, yet nothing had turned up. It was almost like the six-year-old vanished into thin air, but that’s impossible. In an overcrowded settlement like Middleos, during daytime no less, how could a young girl just disappear without a trace? Kelly had been removed from Middleos during this time for her safety, as her community started to suspect her of foul play.
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’re magical healers.
For skeptics, they’re delusional. On March 5th, 2024, two weeks after Josh’s disappearance, police arrested four people: Raquel Kelly Smith, her boyfriend Jacken Boetta, her friend Stephano Van Rein, and a local healer in the middle region, Fumza Sagakqua. Kelly and Boetta for obvious reasons, and Stephano for the fact that several reports indicated he was at the Smith residence on the day Josh disappeared. According to an investigator, he had approached Stephano a day after Josh 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 couldn’t rule anything out at this point. Was Fumza the sangoma they had sold Josh to? Was this case on its way to getting solved? Unfortunately, it can never be that easy.
While Fumza was indeed regarded as a healer in that region, many suspected that she was used as a scapegoat. Fumza was in custody for one week, during which she claimed that she was repeatedly assaulted into confessing that she had killed Josh and harvested her skin and eyes. When she denied the accusations, she was assaulted again. Eventually, after a week of no real evidence, the people of Middleos establishing an alibi for her, Fumza was released.
In her place, however, police brought in another woman, someone they had some evidence against. Lorentia 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 Josh Smith’s disappearance pled not guilty.
It was now Lorentia’s word against theirs. But first, prosecutors had to establish a timeline. On February 19th, 2024, Kelly left her two younger kids, Josh and her brother, in her boyfriend Boetta’s care. She took her oldest daughter to school and went to work at the Zagger’s home.
Later on, this was around 9:00 a. m. , she 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 Zagger, claiming it was to buy detergent to wash the kids’ uniforms.
It wasn’t. Kelly instead used that money to buy Tick, the local name for coke in the Western Cape region. Joined by Stephano, the couple used the 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, Boetta picked up the story, claiming that Lorentia came over for a few hours and offered to smoke with him. He obliged while Josh went out to play. After they were done, Boetta made his way into another shack where he passed out until Kelly woke him up, asking where Josh was. Detective Constable Rafale Seope, a member of the family violence and child protection unit, claimed that she interviewed both Lorentia and Stephano on the night that Josh was reported missing.
Asked by the state’s prosecutor about Lorentia’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 Josh might have been taken by sangomas. She said Stephano claimed that Lorentia had left with Josh 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 Lorentia’s boyfriend, Ayanda, might have given the child to a sangoma. ”
In March of 2024, police found blood stains on a discarded bed sheet and pillow cover. It was later found that the blood was not Josh’s. Kelly Zagger claimed that the day after Josh’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. Zagger claimed that she had a hunch that Kelly was protecting someone and asked Kelly to consider the safety of her child. She 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 Josh but wouldn’t reveal any more information about the subject. Mrs. Zagger claimed that she watched Kelly sleep peacefully that night, questioning if it was actually her child that had just gone missing. Edna Naar, a grade 1 teacher, claimed that Kelly had told her, the day after Josh’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 Josh—had been shipped in a container and was on her way to West Africa. When Edna asked Kelly if she’d revealed this information to the police, Kelly claimed that she feared retribution from the Sana people and that she wasn’t 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 Sana would become a hot spot in January or February of 2024. According to Steven Coetzee, a former friend who later took to the witness stand, Kelly would routinely joke about selling Josh for money.
The joke started all the way back in August of 2023. But why didn’t anyone 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. Josh was still missing in April of 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 Josh’s disappearance, Lorentia’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. The prosecution claimed that they had over 90 witnesses who were willing to testify that Kelly was involved in her daughter’s disappearance, with Boetta and Stephano acting as accomplices. But people were only interested in one testimony.
What did Lorentia have to say? And how involved was she in Josh Smith’s disappearance? The trial against Kelly, Boetta, and Stephano spanned over nine days, with several witnesses being called on the defense and prosecution’s behalf. Carlin Zagger, Mrs.
Zagger’s 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 Carlin 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 Zagger claimed that she found it hard to believe that Kelly Smith wasn’t 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 Josh’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 Josh’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 Coetzee revealed that Kelly had concocted her plan sometime in August of 2023, resolving to sell her children, all of them, by January or February of 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 wasn’t 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 Lorentia 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 Joshelyn was looking for her because they wanted her eyes and skin. ”
Lorentia’s testimony was the Hail Mary that the prosecution was hoping for.
However, the court determined that the validity of Lorentia’s testimony, someone who was once accused of taking part in the plot to sell Josh, 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, Lorentia 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, Boetta. She claimed that she had known Kelly the longest, almost a year, and became acquainted with Boetta through her. She also claimed that she didn’t know Stephano that well, only having met him about six to seven months before Josh went missing.
Eventually, she revealed that she had in fact been at the Smith residence on the day of Josh’s alleged sale. She claimed that Kelly had packed a black cooler bag with a sweater and underwear for Josh and instructed Boetta to take care of the girl until 2:00 while she was at work. According to Lorentia’s testimony, Kelly had stated that a woman would be coming to pick Josh up at 2:00, at which point she would escort her daughter to the woman herself. Sure enough, the woman came to the residence at 2:00, in a white blouse, green skirt, and a green headscarf with dots over her face.
Lorentia claimed to have seen Kelly prepare Josh 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 Josh had been taken, and instead to file a missing person’s report after a day. Kelly appeared guilty, while Boetta seemed like he couldn’t care less. Lorentia claimed that Kelly told her she had done something awful to Josh before handing her boyfriend 20,000 rand.
Hours later, when Kelly had reported her daughter missing and had arrived at Lorentia’s residence with the police, asking her if she knew where Josh was, Lorentia asked her why she wasn’t telling the police about the woman, the sale, and whatever had just happened. Lorentia claimed that Kelly offered her 1,000 rand, while she offered Stephano 1,200 rand, and the remaining would be split between her and Boetta. Lorentia 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 didn’t know the plans Kelly and Boetta had. I only overheard them at a later stage about plans to sell the child. I tried to stop her, but she wouldn’t listen. Wherever Josh 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. Boetta’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 Lorentia and suggested she had done more than she admitted. But the court wasn’t convinced. On May 2nd, 2025, Judge Nathan Erasmus delivered the verdict in a quiet courtroom filled with reporters, families, and protesters waiting outside. He found Kelly Smith, Jacken Appalis, and Stephano Van Rein guilty of kidnapping and human trafficking.
He said their behavior after Josh’s disappearance was not that of distressed caregivers, but people trying to cover their tracks. Even though Josh’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 23rd. The court stated that additional witnesses might be called and that forensic specialists were still reviewing Boetta’s phone and vehicle, which hadn’t 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 Josh was. Which was why justice had not yet been served for the people of Sana Bay. Josh’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 hasn’t told us where Josh 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 three 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 convicted in Josh Smith’s case, the mayor of Sana Bay, Andre Truter, confirmed that the house where Josh disappeared had been set on fire.
He reported that no one had been injured in the suspected arson, but that no arrests had been made either. Josh’s name still appears on South Africa’s national missing person’s database. The photo hasn’t changed. Jail sentences will follow, but the question that matters most—where is Josh?
—was never answered. Her case is still open. According to the Western Cape police, investigators continue to follow every lead. If you drive through Middleos today, you might still spot a picture of Josh Smith, bright-eyed and smiling, with the words “missing” written at the bottom.
Joshyn Smith, born October 23rd, 2017. Disappeared February 19th, 2024. Never found.
