Senior officers detail initial search, investigation related to Joshlin Smith disappearance

CAPE TOWN - Senior police officers this week provided details about the search and initial investigation related to missing girl Joshlin Smith.  

Joshlin's mother, Kelly Smith, Jacquen Appollis, and Stevano van Rhyn allegedly sold the child to an unknown woman in Saldanha Bay.  

Smith, Appollis and Van Rhyn are charged with kidnapping and human trafficking in the Western Cape High Court, sitting in the Saldanha Bay Multi-Purpose Centre.  

Saldanha Bay station commander Colonel Lincoln Sebola and child protection unit detective Sergeant Meyer Milstein this week told the court about the search for Joshlin.  

Sebola told the court he set up a search team and a joint operational centre at the police station on 20 February, the day after Joshlin went missing.  

He said even after the City of Cape Town joined the search on 29 February, they still could not find any trace of Joshlin.  

Sebola told the court he became suspicious of Smith after she told him her missing child had brought her fame.  

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Milstein told the court his team followed up various leads and sightings of Joshlin in the week after she disappeared, but their efforts yielded no results.  

He also testified that Smith showed no signs of distress when he took her statement.  

During cross-examination, Smith's attorney told the court she was on anti-depressants at the time.