Update on Madalina Cojocari: Police used jail informant, recorded phone calls
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Where is Madalina Cojocari?
Madalina Cojocari was 11 years old when she went missing in Cornelius, N.C. in November 2022. But her mother and stepfather did not report her missing for about three weeks and have been charged with failing to report the disappearance of a minor. Meanwhile, as of May 2024, Madalina remains missing.
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While listening in on her calls from jail, police heard Madalina Cojocari’s mother raise the possibility that the girl’s step-father gave her “away for money,” newly-unsealed court records show.
The girl, 11 years old at the time, has been missing since November. The documents go back to March but only this week were made public.
The records indicate authorities have been listening to phone calls by Madalina Cojocari’s parents while they are jailed in Charlotte and also sent in an informant to share a cell with Christopher Palmiter, the girl’s step-father. Both were charged in December after failing to report Madalina missing for three weeks.
“In one recorded jail call between Diana and her mother, the women discuss a bag with money, withdrawing cash, and a ‘theory that Chris gave the girl away for money,’” according to a search warrant filed by police to obtain bank records.
In another recorded call between Palmiter, his brother and his sister-in-law, he mentioned Cojocari “had a lot of cash with her and he did not know where it came from,” according to the warrant.
Madalina was last seen on Nov. 21 when surveillance footage recorded her getting off the school bus at a stop near her home in Cornelius. Her mother and stepfather waited to report her missing until Dec. 15 after her school became concerned by her absence.
Local authorities and the FBI have confirmed the search for Madalina expanded beyond the Charlotte area as tips rolled in for the highly-publicized missing child case.
Search warrants in Mecklenburg County confirm police obtained surveillance video footage from a place near Sugar Mountain and believe Madalina was with a man there on Dec. 16, WBTV reported Tuesday, citing court documents. The man, WBTV and WSOC reported, could be one of Cojocari’s relatives.
The previously-sealed search warrants include details from the confidential jail informant who saw Palmiter writing in his journal. He was recalling Madalina’s disappearance and writing down what he remembered, Palmiter said, according to the informant.
Palmiter was last seen writing in it March 8, according to the search warrant authorities later used to seize his notebook and other writings.
In court and police records previously obtained by the Observer, officials provided details about the puzzling explanations Madalina’s parents gave about when she went missing and why they didn’t report it.
These arrest records show that on the night of Nov. 23, when her mother claims Madalina disappeared, her parents were fighting. Her mother told investigators she believed her husband, Madalina’s step father, put their family in danger.
She’d asked him if he knew where Madalina was and if he’d hidden her. He asked her the same.
She also told police she did not report her daughter missing sooner because she feared “conflict” with him.
Madalina Cojocari, missing girl
Madalina was last seen wearing jeans, pink, purple and white Adidas shoes, and a white T-shirt and jacket. She is 4 feet, 10 inches tall, has dark brown hair and weighs about 90 pounds, police said at the time of her reported disappearance.
This story was originally published July 18, 2023 at 1:31 PM.
