North Carolina police believe the mother of missing girl Madalina Cojocari has fled to her home country

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The mother of a missing North Carolina girl was charged in connection with her disappearance, pleaded guilty, walked out of prison and then fled the United States within two years.

Madalina Cojocari was last seen on November 21, 2022, getting off a school bus in her hometown of Cornelius, north of Charlotte, when she was 11 years old. Madalina’s mother and stepfather did not report her missing until December 15, 2022, although they had told the police that they had last seen their daughter at home on the evening of November 23, 2022.

“It never leaves my mind. And I can confidently say that it is the same with all the detectives and everyone who put so much time into this case,” Cornelius Police Department Chief David Baucom told Fox News Digital. “There were times in the beginning [the] Investigations where some of us didn’t go home for 48 hours because we were working so hard on the case and tracking down leads and everything else. Of course, this can only last for so long for each person. But… she never leaves our minds.”

Madalina’s mother, Diana Cojocari, and her stepfather, Christopher Palmiter, were arrested and charged with failing to report a missing child in 2022.

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Diana pleaded guilty in May, arguing that the time she had served in prison up to that point had served enough time.

A Mecklenburg County jury found Palmiter guilty of failing to report a missing child to law enforcement on May 31 after a week-long trial and sentenced him to 30 months of supervised probation.

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Around that time, authorities released Diana from prison, and neighbors reported seeing her again in their quiet suburban neighborhood in early June. Baucom said she and Palmiter “never really lived together” after their respective releases from prison, but Diana showed up at the house where they used to live in early June.

This poster shows Madalina Cojocari, who has not been seen since getting off a school bus in November 2022. (Cornelius Police Department)

In late June, Cornelius police named Diana the prime suspect in Madalina’s disappearance, but by that time she had already left the United States, probably for Moldova.

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“We… could not confirm that she is in Moldova. However, we assume that she is back in her home country.”

— David Baucom

“And then she ended up leaving the country. I don’t know the exact date she left the country,” Baucom said, later adding that there were no restrictions that could have prevented her from fleeing America.

Madalina Cojocari was last seen in November 2022. (Cornelius Police Department)

Baucom noted that in her first arrest in 2022, Diana “[S]He was charged with and served time for the only charge we were able to sustain in the first part of the investigation.”

Police were able to make contact with Diana while she was still in Cornelius after her release, but officials have since lost track of her exact whereabouts and have turned to federal authorities for help finding her abroad .

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After Madalina Cojocari disappeared from her hometown of Cornelius, North Carolina in November 2022, authorities arrested Diana Cojocari and Christopher Palmiter and charged them with failing to report a missing child to law enforcement. (Mecklenburg County Internment Facility)

“We made this request, but we have not yet received a response as to whether it has been fulfilled,” the police chief said of the Cornelius Police Department’s request to federal officials.

Diana was in the USA with a green card. In May, Palmiter filed for divorce against his estranged wife.

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“It is unfortunate that she returned to Moldova, but our case here is ongoing and we will continue to investigate it,” Baucom said when asked whether Diana’s decision to leave the country would affect efforts to find Madalina. will hinder, which would be the case, I will be 13 years old today. “Although this investigation has been complicated from the start…since we were three weeks behind from the start, having her not here definitely doesn’t make our investigation any easier. But it doesn’t change what we do.” We will continue the investigation.”

Madalina Cojocari (Cornelius Police Department)

Based on their investigation so far, Cornelius police do not believe Madalina ever left the United States, but are not ruling out any possibility.

“It is still a very active case. We still meet regularly about this topic. We hired a detective to do it. So it’s not a cold case by any means, and I just want to make sure that the community and really whoever sees this… [knows] “Our goal is to find Madalina,” Baucom said.

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Residents of Cornelius, N.C., say they saw Diana Cojocari at the neighborhood pool and walking through downtown before she left town. (Facebook user)

Diana told school officials and Cornelius police that she had not seen her daughter, a Moldovan-born sixth grader at Bailey Middle School, since about 10 p.m. on Nov. 23, 2022, after she and Palmiter arrived there , went into her bedroom and got into an argument, court documents say.

Palmiter said that on November 24, 2022, he drove to his relative’s home in Michigan “to pick up some items” after an argument with his wife. According to an affidavit, Diana apparently went to her daughter’s room around 11:30 a.m. that morning and discovered that the 11-year-old had disappeared.

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When Palmiter returned home to Cornelius on November 26, Diana apparently asked him where her daughter was. Palmiter asked her the same question in return, the affidavit says.

Police only learned of Madalina’s disappearance through a report of truancy from the 11-year-old’s middle school.

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Madalina Cojocari is seen on camera getting off a school bus on November 21, 2022 at 5 p.m. (Twitter/@FBICharlotte)

Bailey Middle School resource officers along with a school counselor attempted a home visit to the Cojocari address on Dec. 12 after Madalina had not shown up to school since Nov. 21. No one answered the door and the school counselor left a truancy package at home.

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Search warrants unsealed last year indicate that Diana and her mother contacted a distant relative and asked if he would help “smuggle” Diana and Madalina out of their Cornelius home before Madalina disappeared, according to phone records obtained by police received from Cornelius.

Authorities are asking anyone with information about Madalina’s whereabouts to contact CPD at 704-892-7773.