Joslin Smith went missing just more than two weeks ago in Middelpos, Diazville, near Saldanha. Photo via via Facebook/ Andre Truter
Startling new developments increasingly piece together the tragedy surrounding the disappearance of six-year-old Saldanha girl, Joslin Smith, which has gripped the nation and made international headlines.
This amid media reports that two suspects in police custody allegedly confessed on Tuesday evening to selling the Grade 1 Diazville Primary School pupil for muti.
Their alleged confession of selling Joslin to a Middelpos man for R20,000 reportedly surfaced during a marathon 36-hour-long interrogation at the Saldanha Police Station.
The man to whom they allegedly sold Joslin, has been in police custody since Sunday.
ALSO READ: Two men claim in grim confession they sold Joslin Smith for muti
Netwerk24 reported that his girlfriend was also taken in for questioning on Tuesday.
On Wednesday morning, Western Cape police spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa confirmed that two men and two women, aged between 26 and 34, have been taken in for questioning.
“With the investigation gaining momentum, arrests are on the cards,” Potelwa added.
The four individuals will appear in the Vredenburg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, 7 March.
The spokesperson, however, said that she does not know for certain how many people will actually make their appearance.
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Maroela Media revealed that Western Cape police commissioner Major-General Thembisile Patekile and the MEC of police oversight and community safety Reagan Allen would attend the court proceedings.
It has now been reported that a female sangoma from the Middelpos informal settlement where Joslin lived with her mother, Kelly Smith, her two siblings and her mother’s boyfriend, Jacquin “Boeta” Appollis, has been one of six people interrogated by the police since the weekend.
According to Netwerk24, several sources on the West Coast claim the sangoma could be the key to unlocking the whereabouts of the blonde, green-eyed girl.
ALSO READ: Polygraph tests and chilling confessions: ‘Kelly would never sell Joslin for money’
Meanwhile, the Saldanha Bay community has launched a renewed search for Joslin along Tabak Bay beach on Wednesday.
According to SABC News, Vernon Vraagom, a community member, was leading the search.
Vraagom explained that they decided to search for her on the beach after a blue flip flop was found.
“There’s a story of a blue plakkie that was found and a week or two ago, there was no mention of the blue plakkie. So that’s why we have decided now to go to that part of the beach.”
On the day of her disappearance, Joslin was wearing a light blue T-shirt and light blue denim shorts.
Police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Malcolm Pojie confirmed on Sunday that bloodstained clothing, a sheet and a knife had been found late on Saturday evening in an open field about a kilometre away from Joslin’s hut.
According to Daily Maverick, a source claimed that forensic tests on the bloodstained clothes revealed that it belonged to Joslin.
Another knife was found planted in the ground in the area on Monday. It is, however, not yet clear whether the knife is connected to the case.
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