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The mother and stepfather of missing Madalina Cojocari ‘clearly’ know more than they are letting on, investigators say, as more than a month has passed since the North Carolina 11-year-old was last seen.
Diana Cojocari, 37, and Christopher Palmiter, 60, were scheduled to appear for their bond hearings in Mecklenburg County court on Wednesday, but court was canceled. They remained in custody at Mecklenburg County Jail on separate bonds.
In an update from the Cornelius Police Department, Captain Jennifer Thompson called the situation a ‘serious case of a child whose parents are clearly not telling us everything they know.’
In court on Wednesday, the judge noted that Madalina’s mother and stepfather have been ordered to surrender their passports as a condition of their release if they post bond. Cojocari’s bond is set at $250,000 and Palmiter’s bond is set at $200,000.
The mother of Madalina Cojocari, from Cornelius, North Carolina, says she last saw her on November 23 – three weeks before she reported the 11-year-old girl missing to her school
Madalina’s mother Diana Cojocari (left), 36, and stepfather Christopher Palmiter, 60, were arrested December 17. Cojocari claims she last saw her daughter at 10pm on November 23, Palmiter thinks he didn’t see her for a full week before making a trip to Michigan November 24
Madalina Cojocari was last seen on November 21 leaving a school bus, and vanished on November 23, her mother Diana Cojocari said.
Police said the school reached out to Diana Cojocari ‘several’ times between November 23 and December 15, when the mother reported the girl missing at her school, according to a police report.
According to court documents that emerged last week, it was revealed that Diana Cojocari told police that she believed her husband ‘put her family in danger.’
Local police have been searching for Madalina Cojocari for 12 days along with the help of the FBI and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.
‘We know everyone has a lot of questions,’ Capt. Jennifer Thompson said in a video posted to Facebook on Wednesday.
‘We also have questions and are doing everything we can, with proper legal authority, to get those answers.’
She added, ‘This is a serious case of a child whose parents are clearly not telling us everything they know.’
The update comes as Diana Cojocari and Palmiter were scheduled to appear in court. They were both arrested on Dec. 17 and charged under a North Carolina law that requires guardians to notify police within ‘a reasonable time’ when a child goes missing.
They each face a felony charge of failure to report the disappearance of a child to law enforcement.
Cojocari is being held on a $250,000 bond, while Palimiter’s bond has been set at $200,000.
Along with surrendering their passports upon posting bond, Palmiter will also be required to wear an electronic ankle monitoring bracelet as part of his bond conditions, the judge announced in court, according to The Charlotte Observer.
Two women, one wearing a furry brown Russian-style Ushanka hat, came for Cojocari’s hearing. But the women, likely relatives of Cojocari, who is originally from the former Soviet republic of Moldova in Eastern Europe, shooed off media as they rushed out of the courtroom afterward.
Madalina was last seen exiting a school bus at her stop on November 21, police say
Madalina Cojocari’s mother says she last saw her on November 23 – three weeks before reporting her missing to her school
Cornelius Police Captain Jennifer Thompson called the situation a ‘serious case of a child whose parents are clearly not telling us everything they know’
Captain Thompson gave an update in the search for Madalina on Tuesday.
‘Investigators have developed and followed about 250 leads in the 12 days they’ve been searching for the girl,’ she said.
‘Those leads have been across state lines and across the globe.’
‘We have interviewed hundreds of people in North Carolina, other states, and, again, across the globe,’ she added.
Thompson also said that police have knocked on about 245 homes in the Victoria Bay neighborhood around Madalina Cojocari’s home and have ‘scoured’ hours of surveillance video from local businesses.
‘Investigators received multiple search warrants for Madalina’s home, to make sure we legally gathered each and every piece of evidence to find Madalina,’ Thompson said.
‘One of the challenges in the case, simply put — we were not notified she was gone, a delay of three weeks,’ Thompson said.
Last week, the FBI released surveillance video that investigators said showed the girl leaving her school bus on November 21, the last confirmed sighting of the child.
On the day of her disappearance Cojocari, 37, had argued with her husband Christopher Palmiter, 60, and Palmiter drove in anger that evening to Michigan.
Three days later, on November 26, Palmiter returned home to North Carolina and Cojocari told him that the young girl was missing from the house in Cornelius, a town just north of Charlotte.
Cojocari’s relatives in Moldova, where she was born, urged her to tell the police the little girl was missing, according to reports – but Cojocari resisted.
Just before Christmas, FBI released a handwritten letter ‘from Madalina’s family’ begging for help in finding her.
They did not specify who the relatives were, or on which side of the family. Palmiter had family in Michigan, but Cojocari said there were no relatives in North Carolina, and she did not know anyone Madalina would have wanted to visit.
‘We love Madalina and are shocked by these circumstances,’ the family letter states.
‘This is something no child or family should ever have to endure.’
The author described Madalina as a ‘beautiful, smart, kind and loving 11-year-old girl with greatness in her future.’
They added: ‘We are desperate to find her right now, she needs all of our help.
‘We ask for your continued, positive support in sharing far and wide the posters and pictures of Madalina.’
At 11.30am on November 24 Diana Cojacari claimed she went to check on Madalina to find she was no longer in her bedroom
The letter came as DailyMail.com discovered that the family was seen lighting a fire and torching couch cushions and other items that burned for days in their backyard, in the days after she disappeared.
Neighbors recall seeing flames and smoke billowing from the yard of the Victoria Bay Drive home in late November, prompting calls to police and the fire department in Cornelius, North Carolina.
Cornelius Fire Chief Guerry Barbee confirmed to DailyMail.com the report of the blaze, but refused to discuss specifics.
A neighbor who saw investigators searching the home told DailyMail.com that they spent hours outside.
‘They took all kinds of samples from the fire pit area,’ he said. ‘I guess they were trying to figure out if they burned anything of substance there.’
‘It’s a gross feeling to know something like this happened in your neighborhood,’ he added. ‘It’s very suspicious that the mother didn’t report the girl missing for two weeks.’
Another neighbor told DailyMail.com that the fire did not raise suspicion at the time, because nobody knew the girl was missing.
‘If you don’t know the context that a girl was missing, it’s kind of a nothing burger of a call,’ he said. ‘At the time, it was more of a fire safety or a permit type of issue.’
‘As part of the normal investigative process, we are expanding our search area outside of the home where Madalina was last seen and that now includes Lake Cornelius,’ police said
Investigators searched the Madalina’s family home, where her mother claims she was last seen
On December 12 a school resource officer at Bailey Middle School went to the Cojocari home with a counselor. There was no answer at the door, so they left a ‘truancy packet.’
On December 14, Cojocari called the school counselor and told her that she would bring Madalina into school the next day.
At that meeting, Cojocari told the resource officer that Madalina had in fact been missing for weeks and was last seen entering her room to go to bed at around 10pm on November 23.
Cojocari also told the school officials that she and her husband argued that night, causing him to drive to his family home in Michigan to collect his belongings.
It was at 11.30am on November 24 that Cojacari says went to check on Madalina to find she was no longer in her bedroom.
When Palmiter returned at 7pm on November 26, Cojacari told police she asked if he knew where Madalina was and that he told her he did not.
After their arrest on December 17 the two were being held at at the Mecklenburg County Detention Center.
Police carried out a thorough search of their home and were seen digging up the font yard with shovels. It is not clear whether they found anything of interest.
Madalina is 4 feet 10 inches, has dark brown hair and weighs about 90 pounds.
She was last seen wearing jeans, pink, purple and white Adidas shoes, and a white t-shirt and jacket.
Anyone with information has been asked to call the Cornelius Police Department at 704-892-7773.
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