A fourth suspect in the missing Joshlin Smith case is set to make her second appearance in the Vredenburg Magistrate’s Court on the West Coast. Lourentia ‘Renz’ Lombaard will appear for her bail hearing. According to State prosecutor Jacques van Zyl, the accused had made a confession, but no further details were provided.

Lombaard is a neighbour of six-year-old Joshlin who disappeared from her house in the Middelpos informal settlement in Saldanha Bay a month ago. It’s alleged that her mother Kelly Smith had instructed her boyfriend Jacquin “Boeta” Appollis, and close friend Steveno van Rhyn to sell her daughter to another Middelpos man for R20 000 for muti.

The two men had apparently made the confession after their interrogation. All four face charges of human trafficking and kidnapping. The three who arrested first are being held at Pollsmoor Prison in Tokai after abandoning their bail. It has since been reported that Joshlin’s mother is pregnant. Joshlin’s two siblings, her 10-year-old brother and three-year-old sister, are currently in the care of family members.