Highly placed sources last night said that police have arrested two suspects who allegedly sold missing Joshlin Smith from Saldanha Bay for R20 000.
While the six-year-old girl has still not been found 15 days after she went missing, an impeccable source has confirmed to the Daily Voice that two arrests were made yesterday, with another arrest “imminent”.
Little Joshlin vanished without a trace from her home in Middelpos on Monday, 19 February.
According to her mother Kelly Smith, 33, the Grade 1 learner at Diazville Primary School felt ill and was left in the care of her berk Jacquin “Boeta” Appollis, while she went to work.
The domestic worker said when she came home around 5pm, her daughter was missing.
However, Appollis reportedly said he last saw Joshlin in the afternoon while she was playing with friends outside. He previously said she had left the house while he was sleeping.
Kelly, a mother of three, previously admitted that she is a tikkop, but became “clean” the day her middle child went missing.
According to her friend, Steveno van Rhyn, the mother and Appollis allegedly smoked drugs with a group of them until 7pm that day before she started looking for Joshlin.
According to the Daily Voice source, two suspects were taken into police custody, and one of them is believed to be close to Joshlin, while the other one is a sangoma.
It is alleged that the person close to Joshlin had “confessed to police that he sold the child to an African woman for R20 000.”
Last week, Kelly’s sister Mickyela Daniels, who is a police officer, took to TikTok where she claimed Kelly, 33, had told her that there was someone “who wanted to buy” Joshlin.
Police did not respond to enquiries last night.
Despite a R250 000 reward for information about Joshlin, and a massive search consisting of SAPS, the Navy, City of Cape Town Law Enforcement, search and rescue dogs and the community members among others, the child has still not been found.
Over the weekend, police confirmed that their search had expanded after they found pieces of blood-stained clothing on an open field on Saturday night.
On the day of Joshlin’s disappearance, she was wearing a light blue T-shirt and light blue denim shorts. She also has a birthmark on her right arm.
Police said the clothing has been sent for forensic examination.
tracy-lynn.ruiters@inl.co.za