04 March 2024 , 17:51
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The hunt for a little girl who has gone missing in South Africa continues to escalate, as the navy joined the search on Monday for 6-year-old Joslin Smith, who disappeared three weeks ago.
Joslin vanished on February 19 from the Saldanha Bay area on South Africa's west coast, which is about 75 miles north of Cape Town. Cops, firefighters and special dog teams have been searching the sand dunes and scrubland near where Joslin lived in a small settlement of shacks and houses.
Drones have been used to help look over large areas, and now the South African navy from a base in Saldanha Bay are helping out too. Lots of people from the local community have also been helping with the search. Some of them said they found a knife and a girl's clothes stained with blood at the weekend, which they gave to the police.
The police said they've sent evidence found during the search to a lab to be checked out, but didn't say exactly what they'd found. Police Minister Bheki Cele met with Joslin's family on Saturday and asked for everyone to stay calm.
Joslin's mum, Kelly Smith, said she and her boyfriend had to be kept safe at a police station last week because angry neighbours blamed them. Police have not said anything about that, but Cele has asked everyone to stay calm "amid the finger-pointing."
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Kelly Smith said she asked her boyfriend to take care of Joslin when she felt sick and didn't go to school on the day she vanished. The boyfriend, Jacquin Appollis, mentioned he lost sight of where Joslin was.
The charity Missing Children South Africa, which is looking for Joslin, said a child goes missing every five hours in the country, according to police numbers. It said that about one in four of these children are never found, or worse, they are killed or trafficked.
The police are also looking for a 3-year-old boy who disappeared in another town close to Cape Town last Sunday.