A preteen girl from North Carolina has been missing for more than a year since she was last seen getting off a school bus in her hometown of Cornelius, just north of Charlotte, on Nov. 21, 2022.
“It’s hard to believe it’s already been a year since she was last seen getting off the school bus,” Cornelius Police Chief David Baucom told Fox News Digital. “And… in just a few weeks will be the anniversary of the actual beginning of our investigation.”
Madalina Cojocari’s mother and stepfather, Diana Cojocari and Christopher Palmiter, did not report the 11-year-old girl missing to police until weeks later, on December 15, 2022, despite telling police that the last time They saw their daughter at home that night. from November 23, 2022.
Baucom, who organized a town hall meeting to remember Madalina on Tuesday, said the weeks-long delay in reporting Madalina’s disappearance initially hampered his department’s investigation.
“It slowed down [the investigation] initially,” Baucom said. “We spent a lot of time trying to go through the records we had available early on and tried to find her that way. And then…we had to, of course, get search warrants and start looking at other records, trying to find other avenues to locate her.”
Madalina Cojocari was last seen getting off a school bus in her hometown of Cornelius, just north of the ChaCornelius Police Department.
Clues have led authorities from the Charlotte area to the mountains of western North Carolina.
“We’re not going to stop until we find her,” the police chief said.
The police chief added that, throughout his career in law enforcement, he had never seen a disappearance case “of this magnitude.”
Christopher Palmiter, Madalina Cojocari’s stepfather, did not report the 11-year-old girl missing to police until weeks later, on December 15, 2022. Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office and Cornelius Police Department
“We may have someone missing for two hours or four hours or maybe a day or so. But, usually, that’s because they forgot to tell a family member that they were going somewhere, or that his cell phone was dead or something. But nothing like this case,” she said.
Circumstances of Madalina’s disappearance
Cojocari, originally from Moldova, told school officials and Cornelius police that she had not seen her daughter, a sixth-grade student at Bailey Middle School, since she went to her room on the night of Nov. 23, 2022. Around 10 p.m. she and her husband, Christopher Palmiter, argued, according to court documents.
On Nov. 24, 2022, Palmiter drove to his relatives’ home in Michigan “to retrieve some items” after an argument with his wife. Cojocari entered his daughter’s room around 11:30 a.m. that morning and discovered the 11-year-old girl was gone.
One police chief said that throughout his career in law enforcement, they have never seen a missing person case “of this magnitude” and emphasized how enormous the Madalina Cojocari missing person case is. Cornelius Police Department
When Palmiter returned to Cornelius on November 26, Cojocari apparently asked him where his daughter was. And Palmiter allegedly asked him the same question in return, according to an affidavit.
Shortly after reporting Madalina missing last year, her parents wrote a handwritten note expressing concern for the missing 11-year-old girl, which CPD shared with the public on December 22.
“Madalina is a beautiful, intelligent, kind and loving 11-year-old girl with a great future,” the family wrote. “We are desperate to find her right now, she needs all our help.”
Arrests
Both parents were arrested for failing to report a missing child. Palmiter was released in August after posting bond while Cojocari remains in custody at the Mecklenburg County Jail.
“That’s part of our judicial process,” Baucom said of Palmiter’s release. “That is an opportunity for all criminally accused persons to receive bail…because in the end everyone remains innocent until proven guilty.”
Bus surveillance footage shows Madalina Cojocari getting off her school bus in Cornelius. fbi charlotte
“Smuggling” accusations
Last year, Cornelius authorities asked the public for “first-hand information from any witnesses” who may have seen Cojocari’s light green Toyota Prius in the Madison County area between Nov. 22, 2022, and Dec. 15. .
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Madison County is a rural area near Asheville located in the Appalachian Mountains.
In an August interview with local media outlet WCNC, Rodica Cojocari, Madalina’s grandmother and Diana’s mother, said through a translator that her “granddaughter is alive, but she has been kidnapped.”
Rodica, a native of Moldova, proceeded to accuse Palmiter of trafficking Diana and Madalina for $5 million.
Search warrants unsealed earlier this year suggest that Diana and Rodica contacted a distant relative to ask if he could help “smuggle” Diana and Madalina out of their home in Cornelius, just north of Charlotte. before Madalina disappeared, according to phone records obtained by the Cornelius Police Department. .
“She told him that she had a bad relationship with co-defendant Christopher Palmiter and that she wanted a divorce,” the order states.
Authorities ask anyone with information about Madalina’s whereabouts to contact CPD at 704-892-7773.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn