Parents of missing NC girl ‘clearly not telling us everything they know,’ police say

By KRISTY KEPLEY-STEWARD

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    CORNELIOUS, North Carolina (WLOS) — Police say the parents of a missing 11-year-old North Carolina girl know more than they’ve told investigators.

Madalina Cojocari, 11, of Cornelius, was reported missing on Thursday, Dec. 15, by her mother, Diana Cojocari, 37, and stepfather, Christopher Palmiter, 60, according to a police report. At the time, her parents told investigators she had not been seen since Nov. 23, 2022.

“The parents of the juvenile reported the juvenile missing to the Bailey Middle School SRO where the juvenile attends school,” the Cornelius Police Department said in a statement. “The juvenile was last seen at home, on the evening of November 23, 2022, and has not been seen since.”

Both parents were arrested on Dec. 17 and charged with failing to report the disappearance of a child to law enforcement.

On Tuesday, investigators said they have developed and followed about 250 leads. Capt. Jennifer Thompson said in a video posted to Facebook that those leads have been “across state lines and across the globe.” Police have knocked at about 245 homes as they’ve gone door-to-door in the Victoria Bay neighborhood around Madalina Cojocari’s home, Thompsons said.

“This is a serious case of a child whose parents are clearly not telling us everything they know,” Thompsons said.

Police have said the girls’ school reached out to her parents several times between Nov. 23 and Dec. 15.

According to ABC affiliate WSOC-TV, Diana Cojocari told police she’d last seen the girl at about 10 p.m. on Nov. 23. Diana Cojocari told police “Madalina went to her room that night to go to bed. Diana stated her and her husband, Christopher Palmiter, argued that night and the next morning he drove to his family’s house in Michigan to recover some items,” law enforcement officials wrote in the arrest sheet.

Diana Cojocari said she went to check on her daughter at about 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 24, but the girl wasn’t in her room, according to the arrest sheet. Police said Diana Cojocari told them that she’d waited until Palmiter returned home, at about 7 p.m. on Nov. 26, to ask if he knew where Madalina Cojocari was.

Police “asked Diana why she did not report Madalina missing until” mid-December, and she “stated she was worried it might start a ‘conflict’ between her and Christopher,” officials wrote in the arrest sheet.

Palmiter told police that he’d asked Diana Cojocari where Madalina was when he’d returned from his trip, officials wrote.

According to the FBI, Madalina had been wearing “jeans, pink, purple and white Adidas shoes, and a white t-shirt and jacket” at the time of her disappearance.

The FBI has released the last known video of Madalina, taken as she got off the school bus on Nov. 21, 2022, at 4:59 p.m.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact the Cornelius Police Department at 704-892-7773 or 1-800-Call FBI if you have any information.

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