Mom of missing Madalina Cojocari to appear in court. Here’s the latest on the case.
A year and a half after she failed to report her still-missing daughter, Diana Cojocari will appear before a judge Friday, court documents show.
FBI billboards still line highways surrounding Charlotte, asking drivers for any information about the missing 12-year-old, Madalina Cojocari. They’ve been there since 2022. They don’t change much. Officers have searched lakes, cities and homes for her, but information remains scarce.
Madalina Cojocari: Cornelius’ missing girl
Police arrested Diana Cojocari and her husband, Christopher Palmiter, after Madalina’s teacher noticed a long absence following her Cornelius school’s 2022 Thanksgiving break. She was last seen Nov. 23, 2022, police say, but the couple didn’t report her missing until Dec. 15 of that year.
Both Diana Cojocari and Palmiter have been interviewed by police, but neither have offered any explanation as to why they didn’t report the girl missing, prosecutors said in a previous court hearing.
Only bits of conflicting information exist in court documents, and they tend to introduce more questions.
Cojocari claims Madalina disappeared, on the night of Nov. 23, when her parents were fighting.
That night, Cojocari asked him if he knew where Madalina was and if he’d hidden her.
He asked her the same.
Where is Madalina? One year later, Cornelius girl still missing as parents await trial
Recorded phone calls of mom, stepfather
Cojocari told a distant relative on Dec. 2, 2022, that she was attempting to “smuggle” both her daughter and herself away from their home in Cornelius because of her “bad” relationship with her husband, according to court documents and search warrants. She wanted a divorce, the relative said.
Cojocari told investigators she believed Palmiter, Madalina’s stepfather, put their family in danger. She also told police she did not report her daughter missing sooner because she feared “conflict” with him, investigators wrote in the documents in the court file.
Later, in a recorded jail call between Cojocari and her mother, “the women discuss a bag with money, withdrawing cash, and a ‘theory that Chris gave the girl away for money,’” according to a search warrant filed by police to obtain bank records.
In another recorded call between Palmiter, his brother and his sister-in-law, he mentioned Cojocari “had a lot of cash with her and he did not know where it came from,” according to the warrant.
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Have you seen Madalina?
Search warrants in Mecklenburg County confirm police obtained surveillance video footage from a place near Sugar Mountain and believe Madalina was with a man there on Dec. 16, WBTV reported Tuesday, citing court documents. The man, WBTV and WSOC reported, could be one of Cojocari’s relatives.
Local authorities and the FBI have confirmed the search for Madalina expanded beyond the Charlotte area as tips rolled in for the highly-publicized missing child case.
Madalina was last seen wearing jeans, pink, purple and white Adidas shoes, and a white T-shirt and jacket. She is 4 feet, 10 inches tall, has dark brown hair and weighs about 90 pounds, police said at the time of her reported disappearance.
Palmiter posted his $25,000 bond, which was originally $200,000, and Cojocari has remained in jail under her $250,000 bond.
Officers ask that anyone with information on Madalina’s whereabouts call the Cornelius Police Department at 704-892-7773 or the FBI at 1-800-CALL FBI. To remain anonymous, call North Mecklenburg Crime Stoppers at 704-896-7867.
