Nine-year-old Shenikah and her mother, Shanan Jacobs, say strangers constantly approach them in public because of the girl’s physical resemblance to Joshlin Smith. The family has been left shaken after posts spreading across platforms led people to believe Shenikah was the girl South Africa has been searching for since February 2024.
According to News24, people allegedly stationed themselves outside the family’s home following the viral claims that their child was the missing girl.
Who Is Joshlin Smith? The Case That Gripped a Nation
For readers outside South Africa, some background is essential.
Joshlin Smith was six years old when she disappeared from her home in Saldanha Bay on 19 February 2024, and she remains missing to this day. Saldanha Bay is a small coastal town roughly 120 kilometres north of Cape Town on South Africa’s West Coast.
A photograph of Joshlin smiling and with her hair in pigtails was broadcast by news stations across South Africa as police launched a nationwide hunt. The image became one of the most recognisable faces in the country.
The case took a devastating turn when the girl’s own mother was implicated. Kelly Smith, whose full name is Racquel Chantel Smith, was initially a figure of sympathy when her daughter went missing. Community members rallied around her and volunteered to help police search for Joshlin in the sand dunes near their poor neighbourhood of shacks.
A woman testified during the trial that Smith had told her she and two men had sold Joshlin for around $1,000 to a traditional healer who wanted the child for her body parts. A traditional healer in South Africa is known locally as a sangoma.
Kelly Smith, her co-accused Jacquen “Boeta” Appollis, and Steveno “Steffie” van Rhyn were sentenced to life imprisonment for human trafficking and 10 years for kidnapping. The sentences are being served concurrently, and all three have been placed on the national child protection register.
The Western Cape High Court denied an appeal from Kelly Smith and her accomplices, who had sought lighter sentences. Joshlin has still not been found.
How Social Media Keeps Getting It Wrong
Despite the convictions, Joshlin Smith viral social media claims continue to circulate and cause real harm to real families.
Misleading posts have alleged that a device was used to locate decomposed remains of the six-year-old. One widely shared post claimed that a cadaver dog led a private team to decomposed remains in the Saldanha dunes, and that “Danie’s gadget” confirmed the findings.
Danie Krugel is a retired police officer who, in 2007, made claims on national television that he had located possible remains of girls who had disappeared decades earlier in Johannesburg, in a case linked to notorious paedophile and serial killer Gert van Rooyen. His methods have never been independently verified.
Western Cape police spokesperson Captain F.C. van Wyk said the false posts had been noted with concern. Van Wyk called on the public to use social platforms responsibly and urged people to verify the source and authenticity of any information before sharing it. Police spokesperson Colonel André Traut confirmed that all information received by investigators is treated with seriousness and thoroughly investigated, but that no tangible evidence linked to the girl has been found.
The Joshlin Smith viral social media claims, police say, are not only false but actively damaging to the investigation and to innocent people.
A Child Told to Prove She Is Not Someone Else
The harm has now fallen on Shenikah, a child who shares nothing with the case except a physical resemblance.
Shanan Jacobs told News24 that what began as cruel social media claims had grown into something that forced the family to deal with strangers appearing at their home. For a nine-year-old, being constantly confronted by strangers who insist she is a missing person is a deeply unsettling experience.
The situation reflects how dangerous Joshlin Smith viral social media claims can be when they target identifiable individuals. The family has had to publicly assert what should never have needed saying: Shenikah is Shenikah, not anyone else.
The Search Continues
At the launch of the Joshlin Smith Foundation in Saldanha Bay, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie said he believed Joshlin was still alive. Western Cape police commissioner Thembisile Patekile told local media that police would not rest until they found out what happened to Joshlin and that the search was continuing day and night.
As of early 2026, Joshlin has still not been found and her body has not been recovered. The South African Police Service continues the investigation, including revisiting areas with K-9 units and following up on new information received.
For families like Shenikah’s, the consequences of Joshlin Smith viral social media claims are not abstract. They arrive at the front door.
This article draws on reporting by News24, The Citizen, IOL, Cape Argus, The Post, BBC News, and CBS News.
