Thursday marked Madalina Cojocari's 13th birthday, but the celebration went on without her at the Cornelius police station. The girl hasn't been seen in over 500 days.
What You Need To Know
- Madalina Cojocari turned 13 on Thursday, but she was not present at the celebration at the Cornelius police station
- Madalina has been missing for over 500 days. She was last seen getting off the school bus on Nov. 21, 2022
- Madalina's mother and stepfather are charged with failure to report the disappearance of a child after they did not report her missing until Dec. 15, 2022
- Cornelius police and the FBI are still investigating Madalina's disappearance, and continue to ask anyone with information to contact authorities
"When we saw this, we thought we would just stop and send her some love, and just support her wherever she is, and hope she gets a safe return," said Eileen Hume, a neighbor in the area.
It's the second birthday celebration Madalina has missed in as many years. The event featured police officers reading birthday cards and notes left for Madalina by community members.
"I hope wherever she is, she's safe," Hume said. "I hope she comes home. I know that all the people that love her, miss her. And as a community, we all miss her too. You want a girl to come home."
Madalina, then 11 years old, was last seen getting off the school bus on Nov. 21, 2022. It would take until Dec. 15 for her mother, Diana Cojocari, to report her missing.
Diana Cojocari is still being held in a Mecklenburg County Detention Center, where she has been since Dec. 17, 2022. She is charged with failure to report the disappearance of a child.
Diana Cojocari was supposed to appear in court in February for her arraignment, but refused to appear. The hearing was given a continuance. Court records show that she currently has a hearing scheduled in August, and another in December.
Madalina's stepfather, Christopher Palmiter, was also charged with failure to report the disappearance of a child. He was released on bond in August, according to jail records.
There is no indication that either parent has cooperated with police in the search, which is entering its 15th month.
The case
Police and the FBI have not given many details about the investigation. School bus video was the last confirmed sighting of Madalina. Her mother said she last saw Madalina on Nov. 23, 2022, but did not report her missing until Dec. 15, more than three weeks later.
Madalina’s school sent a guidance counselor to the house on Dec. 12 to find out why the sixth grader had not been in class, according to police. No one answered the door, but Diana Cojocari went to the school three days later and reported Madalina missing.
“Diana Cojocari said she 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,” police said in an affidavit. That was Nov. 23.
The mother told police she looked in Madalina's room at about 11:30 a.m. the next day, but the girl was gone. Some clothes and a backpack were gone too, according to investigators.
Diana Cojocari said she waited for her husband to return on Nov. 26 to ask if he knew where Madalina was, police said.
“Christopher Palmiter did not and asked the same question in return,” investigators said.
“Detectives asked Diana Cojocari why she waited to report Madalina missing, and she stated that she was worried it might start a ‘conflict’ between her and Christopher Palmiter,” the affidavit states.
According to search warrants, investigators seized two cellphones. Police also asked for a warrant for location data, call records, text messages and other information off the phones.
Authorities also searched the Cojocari home shortly after Madalina was reported missing.
The warrants are partially redacted, but investigators do single out “an area blocked off with plywood in the kitchen” in the warrant application.
“Det. Nichols asked about the area and Mr. Palmiter stated that they had planned to make a separate apartment,” according to the warrant application.
The mother told investigators that her family in Moldova said she should call the police, according to warrants filed in the case. She never did.
The search warrants said Palmiter told investigators that he had not seen the girl for a week before he left to drive to Michigan.
Search warrants released last year say Diana Cojocari asked someone described as a “distant relative” for help to get her and her daughter away from Palmiter.
Police talked to that relative, the warrant shows. “He stated that Diana Cojocari and her mother asked him if he would assist Diana with ‘smuggling’ her and Madalina Cojocari away from the residence,” the search warrant states.
A search of Diana Cojocari’s car last February found passports for the mother and daughter, along with work and education documents, according to the warrant.
The man “stated that she told him she was in a bad relationship with co-defendant, Christopher Palmiter, and wanted a divorce,” the warrant said.
Diana Cojocari had a long phone call with the relative Dec. 2, according to the warrant. That was after Madalina was last seen at school but before she was reported missing.
“In reviewing this subject’s phone records, there was multiple calls to phone numbers belonging to unidentified targets involved in ongoing T3 drug/narcotic trafficking investigations,” the warrant states.
The search for Madalina, now 13, continues.