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Investigating officer Captain Wesley Lombard testifies before the Western Cape High Court sitting at Saldanha Bay on 27 March 2025.
The investigating officer in the Joshlin Smith kidnapping and human trafficking case is expected to continue to testify this morning in the
Western Cape High Court sitting at Saldanha Bay.
Captain Wesley Lombard has been testifying for the state in the case in which Kelly Smith, Jacquen “Boeta” Appollis and Steveno van Rhyn are on trial.
Lombard told the court that they’d struggled to earn the necessary community trust to get assistance in their investigation following negative publicity on social media.
He said that people followed police and made live videos, making it difficult for officers to search for the girl.
“Most of the community members who talked like that on that day did not realise how much danger they could put Joshlin in because, at that stage of the investigation, there was no evidence that Joshlin was already dead – the focus was to get Joshlin alive.”
Prostitution ring allegations
Meanwhile, Lombard suggested that Joshlin’s mother, Kelly Smith, was involved in a prostitution ring around Saldanha Bay.
He says they interviewed other local sex workers as to whether it was possible for an activity like that to lead to a situation where a child can go missing and the answer was negative.
“The information that we came across was that she was involved in prostitution in Saldanha. We found out from ladies who at that stage were involved with her, in that we had an interview with them, and they confirmed this.”
