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The Lasso

The Student News Site of Santa Rosa Academy

The Lasso

The Student News Site of Santa Rosa Academy

The Lasso

Mom that sold Her 6 year-old daughter

On Feb 19, six-year-old Joslin Smith was reported missing to the police. In Cape Town, South Africa the police searched for three weeks. During the search, they discovered a child’s discarded clothes near the missing child’s home.

Cape Town South Africa distant view building. A view of a city from the top of the hill. Architecture stock photograph: A city is seen from a hill overlooking the ocean / A view of a city from the top of a hill.

After three weeks they found out the shocking truth. Her mother, Racquel Chantel Smith had sold her with the help of three others: two men, and one woman. One man is Racquel’s boyfriend.

Racquel had stated she left Joslin with her boyfriend on Feb 19, the day Joslin was reported missing. Joslin still hasn’t been found even after one entire operation involving police, sniffer dogs, firefighters, and city authorities around Joslin’s home.

The clothes they found were bloody with a knife. It was sent to forensics. Police still haven’t let any information out to the public yet.

The prosecutors stated in the courtroom documents that Racquel and the three others had planned to abduct Joslin, and then intentionally sold her for just over 1,000 dollars. The four suspects did not enter a plea response to the charges, and future court hearings were scheduled.

The four suspects were escorted out of the courthouse in Vredenburg, a town that’s located near Saldanha Bay. They left in an armored police vehicle. While a very large crowd gathered while repeatedly shouting,” Justice for Joslin.”

Vredenburg Luftaufnahme (2016)

Western Cape province police commissioner, Themisile Patekiler had explained it’s possible more arrests will be made though, the police’s main focus is their search on Joslin.

“At this stage, we do not have a child,” Patekiler said. “Our ultimate goal is to find the child. We still want to find that child alive.”

Police have renewed calls for, “every citizen, every person” to help find Joslin. The police fear she has been taken to a different city or even out of the country.

Neighbors had accused the mother of selling her for just over 1,000 dollars.

Every 1 of 4 people trafficked is a child, an estimated 130 people are trafficked every hour, and 1 million children are trafficked a year.

HSI Special Agents and officers with the Irving Police Department discuss the upcoming day’s enforcement operation. One thousand one hundred and thirty-three individuals were arrested across the U.S. during Project Shadowfire, a 5-week operation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) that ended March 18. The operation targeted transnational criminal gangs and others associated with transnational criminal activity, like drug trafficking, human smuggling and sex trafficking, murder and racketeering. (Creator :Defense Visual Information Distribution Service)
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About the Contributor
Jessie Hernandez
Jessie Hernandez, Staff Writer
Jessie Hernandez is a freshmen at Santa Rosa Academy. He likes to run and was a member of the track team in middle school -- he is thinking about joining a sport in the future. He hopes after high school he gets into a good college where he wishes to major in Criminal Justice, and earns a bachelors degree where he can pursue his dream job as a homicide detective. He also loves his family very much.
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    Scurvy-haverMar 26, 2024 at 11:56 am

    BRO WHATTTTTT D:

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