Update
NATIONAL NEWS - In yet another postponement for further investigation, the sensational trial for Joshlin Smith’s disappearance case has been remanded to the Western Cape High Court by Magistrate Theresa Postma.
This after the State indicated that it needed more time for further investigation as new information had allegedly come to light.
Postma, however, made it clear that this will be the final postponement.
Joshlin Smith: Tragic case of missing Saldanha girl
The Grade 1 Diazville Primary School pupil vanished nearly seven months ago from the Middelpos Informal Settlement, near Saldanha Bay, on 19 February 2024.
Since then, an extensive search operation − which has extended as far as the United Kingdom (UK) alongside Interpol − was launched to locate the six-year-old girl.
Her mother, Racquel “Kelly” Smith, her boyfriend Jacquen “Boeta” Appollis, and the couple’s friends Steveno van Rhyn and Lourentia “Renze” Lombaard were arrested and charged with human trafficking and kidnapping in March this year.
A heavily pregnant Smith – dressed in a floral high-collared shirt and a black puffer jacket – briefly appeared in the dock alongside her co-accused at the Vredenburg Magistrate’s Court on Monday morning, 16 September.
They were handed an indictment and summary of facts before Postma transferred the matter to the Western Cape High Court where the trial is set to continue on 21 October 2024.
When the four accused were last in the dock on 15 July, the State also requested more time to investigate the matter.
Smith and Lombaard have been remanded in custody at Cape Town’s Pollsmoor Prison and Appollis and Van Rhyn at Malmesbury Correctional Services.
Read more on Caxton publication, The Citizen
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