The judge who sentenced Joshlin Smith’s mother and her two accomplices has given a poignant message.

Earlier today (May 29), Racquel ‘Kelly’ Smith, her boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and their friend, Steveno van Rhyn were all sentenced to life imprisonment.

The trio were convicted of kidnapping and trafficking then-six-year-old Joshlin Smith, Kelly’s daughter, who went missing from her home in Western Cape, South Africa, in February 2024. The young girl’s whereabouts remain unknown despite police continuing to hunt for her.

Law enforcement have pledged to continue their search for Joshlin. Western Cape police commissioner Thembisile Patekile told local media, per BBC: “We will not rest until we find [out] what happened to Joshlin. We are continuing day and night looking for her.”

Kelly Smith has been sentenced to life behind bars (Gallo Images/Die Burger/Jaco Marais)

During the trail, a witness said that in 2023 they had overheard Kelly, a mom-of-three, talking about selling her kids for 20,000 rand reach (around $1,100 USD), but also said she’d accept $275.

Meanwhile a neighbor, Lourentia Lombaard, testified that Kelly had told her that she had sold her daughter for 20,000 rand to a traditional healer known as a sangoma who ‘wanted her for her eyes and skin’.

Judge Nathan Erasmus was the one to decide the convicts’ fate today and made a heartbreaking statement during which he noted that Kelly’s grandmother had expressed concerns about her back in 2016.

Joshlin remains missing (SABC News)

“The evidence indicated that Miss Smith, in particular, was in need of social services for a prolonged period,” Erasmus told the packed courtroom, as per Jacaranda FM.

“And I wonder, when her grandmother complained in 2016 to the Department of Social Development for a protection order, what access did she [Kelly] have when she sought support from the justice system? We failed.”

Kelly, 35, is believed to have been struggling with drug addiction since she was young, over the course of which she experienced homelessness.

A social worker’s report on the mother was read out in the trial which described her life as being ‘in chaos’.

“She was unable to provide stable care for Joshlin from the beginning,” it added.

Judge Nathan Erasmus said that Joshlin’s mother was ‘failed’ by the system (Brenton Geach/Gallo Images via Getty Images)

Kelly had been to rehab after giving birth to Joshlin and the young girl was cared for by Natasha Andrews, a family friend.

She and her husband hoped to adopt Joshlin but the plan fell through due to lack of parental consent.

Speaking in the trial, Andrews said: “We could have provided for her better than her mother.”

If you’ve been affected by any of these issues or want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, the Childhelp USA National Child Abuse Hotline (1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453) operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and receives calls from throughout the United States, Canada, US Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico.

The mom of a 19-year-old who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend after a Halloween party turned sour, yelled four words at her killer when she next saw him.

On October 30, 2020, Livye Lewis visited a friends house for a party in Hemphill, Texas, that carried on into the early hours of the morning on October 31, but at 2.30am things got heated.

Livye Lewis was just 19 years old when she was murdered on Halloween, 2020 (Facebook/Justice For Livye Lewis)

At the gathering was Lewis, her ex-boyfriend Matthew Edgar – who was 24 at the time – and his ex-wife Montana Bockel, and then Bobby Ozan whose house it was.

According to Ozan, Lewis and Bockel both spent much of the night ignoring Edgar – with Lewis having only broken up with Edgar just a few weeks before.

After the majority of the party had gone, Edgar overheard Lewis’ plans to stay the night with Ozan and so began assaulting Bockel for not preventing her and Ozan getting together.

Ozan then restrained Edgar, while both the women made off. Bockel drove to Edgar’s grandparents home, but it wasn’t clear where Lewis was driving.

Lewis’ mom Darci Bass created her own wanted signs and plastered them all over Hemphill, Texas (Darci Bass)

Edgar managed to catch up with Lewis and when Bockel text him asking ‘Where is she?’ at 3.34am, he replied seconds later ‘Dead’.

Roughly an hour and a half later, a woman pulled over at the side of the road after seeing Lewis’ car. After walking over to it she checked her pulse and called 911 at around 5.15am to report her death – with Lewis having a gunshot wound to her neck.

When officers arrived, they discovered Edgar curled up in the fetal position behind the car and he claimed to have no recollection of what had happened – due to him allegedly drinking a bottle of whiskey.

“He was found in the fetal position behind the vehicle that Lewis was found in,” says MacDonough.

Sabine County Sheriff’s Investigator J.P. MacDonough said when he saw Lewis’ body, he knew that Lewis knew her killer.

Matthew Edgar was 24 years old when he murdered Lewis after overhearing her say she was going to stay the night with another guy at a party (Texas Department of Public Safety)

“She was just sitting there with her legs crossed,

“Well, it indicates to me she was not afraid … She was actually, to some degree, comfortable with who she was speaking with.”

Officials then found a rifle nearby and blood on Edgar’s clothes and arrested him but he claimed he didn’t know how he ended up at the crime scene.

While he lay in hospital the same day, he was interviewed by MacDonough: “You don’t know how you ended up on the ground behind the car … With the dead girl in it,” said MacDonough. “No, sir,” Edgar replies. “I have no clue.”

Edgar was released on bail later due to the Covid-19 pandemic and all courts being shut down, no grand juries convened.

Just months after his release he bumped into Darci Bass, Lewis’ mom, in a convenience store in Hemphill. She yelled four heartbreaking words at him: “You killed my daughter!”

Bass then proceeded to throw anything she could at him and chased him into the parking lot and smashed his truck up with a chain that was in the back of Edgar’s truck.

On January 4, 2022, he went on trial but just days into it he did not return and instead went on the run. The trial continued and Edgar, who is now 27, was found guilty of Lewis’ murder – but it took almost an entire year before he was captured on December 29, 2022.

He was found in a house just yards away from his grandparents home.

The mom of a girl who went missing 39 years ago has responded after a woman emerged online claiming to be her daughter.

On February 22, 1985, Cherrie Mahan had just been dropped off at her home in Pennsylvania by her school bus when she disappeared.

The eight-year-old has been a missing person ever since, with an investigation still not having found what happened to her.

Investigators believe that a Dodge van from 1976 painted with a picture of a skier on a mounted could be involved in the awful case.

Nearly 40 years after Cherrie’s disappearance, a woman has emerged in a Facebook group claiming to be her.

State police in Pennsylvania have confirmed that they are now investigating the woman to verify her claim.

However, Cherrie’s mom Janice McKinney has given a heartbreaking response to the woman’s claim that she is her lost daughter.

She explained to the Butler Eagle that she does not believe this woman is her daughter, saying: “I truly believe she thought in her mind that she was Cherrie. It did not look anything like Cherrie at all.”

Cherrie Mahan was eight-years-old when she went missing. (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children)

Not only that, but this isn’t the first time that someone has come forward claiming to be Cherrie.

Three other people have previously claimed to be Cherrie, making this the fourth time that someone done it.

McKinney went on to condemn the woman, saying: “People are mean, they are cruel, but this affects me really crazy. It’s gonna be 40 years since Cherrie’s been missing.”

She added: “This just hit me different. I didn’t even see it. Someone called me and told me about it.”

The mom also posted into the Facebook group to request that people be sensitive with how they post there, writing: “I talked to the police, they are investigating. This is very hard on me so please be aware I see everything.”

A artificially aged image depicting how Cherrie may look today. (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children)

McKinney opened up about how it was the uncertainly and ‘not knowing’ which most difficult, saying it ‘sucks the life out of you.’

She added: “It just beats you down every single day and for the past 39 years, this has been the hardest part of my life.”

A spokesperson for Pennsylvania State Police told UNILAD: “We are investigating this woman’s claim to be Cherrie Mahan and are currently working with an out-of-state agency to identify her.

“The out of state agency has not yet made contact with her based on the contact information she provided. The investigation continues.”

A mother was found dead just hours after serving an eviction notice to her 19-year-old son.

Shanelle Burns died on 7 February, with the preliminary results of an autopsy taken two days later revealing the cause of death as asphyxiation secondary to manual strangulation. Her death was ruled as a homicide shortly after.

It had emerged that the 43-year-old had filed an eviction notice against her son, Conner Kobold, in the days prior to her death.

As per charging documents seen by the Post-Tribune, Shanelle had specified that in order to avoid being evicted, a then-19-year-old Conner had 30 days to find a job, clean his room, and help with tidying common areas.

Just hours after the notice was filed to him on 5 February, police in Valparaiso, Indiana, were called to a report of an assault after Conner dialled 911 numerous times.

Shanelle Burns was found dead in her home earlier this year. (Johnson Danielson Funeral Home)

Cops say they found an unresponsive woman after arriving at the scene. The individual was Shanelle, who sustained ‘serious injuries’.

After passing away in hospital two days later, Conner has since been charged with murder and aggravated battery in connection with the death of his mother, as per court records.

The now 20-year-old has since pleaded not guilty.

According to reports from both WGN and the Post-Tribune, police officers claim that Conner told officers once in the cop car that there ‘is a dead person inside of the house on the corner’.

After being questioned by officers, Conner allegedly responded: “Yeah, I killed somebody in that that (sic) house.”

Upon entering the house, police officers found Shanelle not breathing and without a pulse.

Many issued emotional statements to pay their respects, including Karen Paciero, her colleague at Loyola University in Chicago.

Conner Kobold has since been charged with his mother’s murder. (Porter County Jail)

She said: “Shanelle was very witty, kind, and poised. She had an exceptional ability to both strategically design and execute; she was a trusted advisor to many within Advancement and so many across the University.

“We all miss her and profoundly mourn the loss to our division and the University.”

Shanelle’s online obituary provides a good explanation on what she was like as a person.

“If you were to ask Shanelle’s friends what mattered most to her you would get a universal response: her son,” it stated.

“Shanelle worked tirelessly to build an enviable life for the two of them, ensuring he had every opportunity to succeed.

“She took great pride in being a mother and poured all her resources into building a supportive and loving environment.”

Conner is currently being held in the Porter County Jail awaiting trial, which is scheduled to take place in August.