Kelly Smith’s home goes up in flames hours after conviction for selling missing daughter Joshlin

Kelly Smith

Cape Town – A woman has been taken in for questioning after a fire destroyed the Middelpos home of Kelly Smith, who was on Friday, convicted — alongside Jacquen Appollis and Steveno van Rhyn — for kidnapping and trafficking her six-year-old daughter, Joshlin Smith.

According to reports, Kelly’s home was destroyed on the same day she was convicted.

Police have opened an arson case, and a woman has been taken in for questioning.

“We can confirm that Saldanha SAPS registered an Arson case for investigation after Kelly Smith’s Middelpos dwelling was destroyed by a fire. An adult female had been taken in for questioning,” said police spokesperson, Lieutenant colonel Malcolm Pojie said.

Judge Nathan Erasmus found a Kelly guilty on Friday of trafficking her six-year-old daughter who has been missing for more than a year, in a case that has outraged the nation.

“I have already found that on the evidence before me, Joshlin was exchanged,” he said.
“The evidence is from all scores there were payments, or at least the promise of payments,” he said, accusing Smith of regarding her daughter, who was aged six when she disappeared, as a “commodity”.

The trio will return to court next Friday for pre-sentencing. Joshlin Smith remains missing.

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