The last known video of the 11-year-old girl shows her getting off the bus on November 21, 2022; her parents said they last saw her November 23 … but didn’t report her missing for 3 weeks.
The mother of Madalina Cojocari, the North Carolina girl who remains missing after her disappearance at age 11 in 2022, pled guilty Monday to Failure to Report the Disappearance of a Child to Law Enforcement.
According to WBTV, Cojocari’s guilty plea was not part of any plea deal; she will be released from custody as she’s already served the maximum amount of time for the charge. The judge also reportedly told her she will likely be deported, as she’s in this country on a green card.
Diana’s husband and Madalina’s stepfather, Christopher Palmiter, is also facing the same charge. He previously entered a not guilty plea; his trial starts tomorrow.
This is the last time investigators have independent confirmation of when Madalina was last seen. She got off the bus on 11-21-22, at 4:59 p.m. We are seeking additional witnesses outside of the family to narrow down the exact timeline of when she disappeared. #FindMadalina pic.twitter.com/dkStKHmjjB
— FBI Charlotte (@FBICharlotte) December 20, 2022
@FBICharlotte
Madalina was 11 when she disappeared in 2022.
The last known video of the child shows her getting off the bus on November 21, while her parents said they last saw her on November 23. They didn’t report her missing, however, for another three weeks.
The investigation into her disappearance began on December 15, after Diana eventually went to her daughter’s school and reported to the School Resource Officer that her daughter was missing. Before that, employees at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School reportedly reached out to the girl’s mother “on several occasions to inquire” about her being absent.
After Cornelius Police Department opened the case, the FBI and SBI joined the investigation shortly after. Then, on December 17, both the girl’s mother and stepfather were arrested for Failure to Report the Disappearance of a Child to Law Enforcement.
FBI Charlotte / Twitter
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According to an arrest sheet (via Law&Crime), Diana said her daughter went to her room on November 23 to go to bed, before she and her husband got into an argument. Palmiter allegedly then drove to Michigan to pick up items from family … and around 11:30am the next day, Thanksgiving, Cojocari went to check on her daughter and she was gone. She said she waited until November 26, when her husband came home, to ask him if he knew where Madalina was. “Christopher stated he did not and asked the same question in return,” notes the sheet.
Diana claimed she waited to report the disappearance because she “was worried it might start a ‘conflict’ between her and Christopher.” He allegedly told police he did not see Madalina the day he left for Michigan — and claimed the last time he saw her was a week before his trip. He also said they both asked the other if they had “hidden” the child, but both denied it.
The arrest sheet simply stated Chris “spoke with Diana several times about Madalina’s whereabouts over the next three weeks and both stated that they did not know where she was, but they did not contact the police to report Madalina missing.”
Cornelius Police Department
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While authorities have extensively searched for the child, there haven’t been too many leads — though investigators said in a warrant unsealed in 2023 that one of Diana’s relatives told them she wanted help “smuggling” herself and the child from their home and was in a “bad relationship” with her husband.
In other documents, via WBTV, it was revealed investigators looked into surveillance photos taken December 16 in Sugar Mountain — the day after Madalina was reported missing by her parents. According to the warrant, the photos showed a child and man who were “physically consistent” with the girl and a man who is reportedly the child’s only other blood relative in the United States.
The docs also suggest Diana may have seen the child between the time her parents claimed they last saw her in November and when she was reported missing. A text message from December 2 reportedly “indicated she was in the presence of the missing child,” two days before she claimed to be traveling to North Carolina to look for her daughter.
FBI Charlotte / Twitter
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In a recorded jail call between Diana and her mother, Diana also allegedly talked about “a theory that Chris gave the girl away for money,” and also discussed a big bag of money and withdrawing cash. Palmiter, meanwhile, was allegedly heard in another recorded jail call talking to his brother and sister-in-law claiming Diana “had a lot of cash with her” — adding that he didn’t know where it came from.
The records also revealed police intentionally placed Palmiter with an informant in jail and later seized his notebooks.
Madalina is described as a white, 11-year-old female weighing approximately 90 pounds. She was last seen wearing jeans, pink, purple and white Adidas shoes, and a white t-shirt and jacket.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Cornelius Police Department at 704-892-7773 or 1-800-Call FBI.
Cornelius Police Department
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