The family of Racquel ‘Kelly’ Smith whose daughter Joshlin has been missing for five weeks said they don’t know that she is pregnant. Picture: Patrick Louw
Cape Town - The family of Racquel “Kelly” Smith, whose daughter Joshlin has been missing for five weeks, said they were unaware that she was pregnant.
Her aunt Priscilla Collair said she’d heard a rumour about the pregnancy but didn’t want to speculate because Kelly hadn’t told them anything.
The Saldanha Bay mom has been behind bars with her boyfriend Jacquen Appollis, Steveno van Rhyn and Lourentia Lombaard on charges of human trafficking and kidnapping the 6-year-old.
Joshlin, a Grade 1 learner at Diazville Primary School, went missing on February 19 when she was left alone with Appollis.
Kelly and Appollis had to be removed from Middelpos and were kept in a safe space after she received threats from community members who said she knew exactly what happened to her eldest daughter.
After many versions of how the couple lost her, they were both taken into custody on suspicion they had something to do with her disappearance.
Her two other children, a 10-yearold boy and 3-year-old daughter, were taken to relatives, where they are under the eye of the social department.
Last week, Phumza Sigaqa, who was also implicated in the case but released from jail, said Kelly had admitted while in the dock that she was expecting another child.
“I had not seen her since I was arrested on March 5. I was told that she would come into the interrogation room but she didn’t. the first time I saw her was when I went to court because I was kept in Hopefield and I didn’t know where she was.
“She first apologised to me and then she addressed her boyfriend. She asked Boeta (Appollis) why he would do this when he knew that she was pregnant.”
Priscilla said she was shocked to learn about this in the newspapers.
“I heard about this on their second appearance and also read it in the papers. I don’t know anything about this and she spoke to my mother a lot and didn’t mention it once, so we can’t confirm it.”
A source close to Kelly said the mother-of-three had visited the hospital two weeks before Joshlin’s disappearance.
“She said she was pregnant and then went to hospital and when she came back she said she miscarried the baby and that is what many people said. I then went to court and I heard that she was still pregnant, and I heard that from a reliable source.”
Kelly was reportedly assaulted in jail and had to be moved to a single cell for her own safety.
Last week, Lombaard made her first appearance in Vredenburg Magistrates’ Court and informed people in the public gallery that she told the police everything. The State revealed that Lombaard had made a confession to the police, but didn’t give details.
She is expected back in the dock for bail information.
mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za