Mom of missing North Carolina girl Madalina Cojocari named suspect in 2022 disappearance month after prison release
The mother of missing 11-year-old Madalina Cojocari was named a suspect in her daughter’s mysterious disappearance less than a month after she was released from prison.
Diana Cojocari, 37, spent 520 days in jail when she failed to report her daughter Madalina missing for 21 days after the sixth-grader was last seen getting off a school bus in November 2022.
On Monday, the Cornelius Police Department said they are continuing to seek information in their search for the missing schoolgirl and considered Diana Cojocari a suspect in their investigation.
Diana and the girl’s stepfather, Christopher Palmiter, were both arrested and charged with failure to report their child as missing in December 2022, just weeks after Madalina was last seen in public.
Diana, who initially pleaded not guilty to the charge, later accepted the charges and was sentenced to 24 months in a maximum prison, minus the 520 days in jail she had been serving since her arrest, according to WCNC.
She was released from prison in May.
Palmiter, who stuck by his non-guilty plea, was found guilty of failing to report his stepdaughter’s disappearance and sentenced to 30 months of supervised probation, according to the outlet.
Since the mother’s release, investigators put out a flyer with Diana’s face next to her missing daughter and believe she may know or have something to do with her daughter’s disappearance.
The Cornelius Police Department told the outlet that neither the mother nor Palmiter has been charged with any new crimes following the new allegations.
Diana only reported her daughter missing on Dec. 15, 2022, after a school resource officer at Bailey Middle School pressed her on the girl’s prolonged absence from class.
Madalina was last seen publically on Nov. 21, 2022, when she was getting off her school bus.
Diana told detectives she had not seen her daughter since she went to her bedroom around 10 p.m. on Nov. 23, 2022.
The mother also shared that she and Palmiter got into a massive argument the same night.
Palmiter reportedly hopped in the car and drove alone about 550 miles to visit his family in Michigan.
The following day, Diana entered her daughter’s room to discover the 11-year-old was gone.
The mother told a detective she “believed her husband put her family in danger” the night Madalina went missing.
