Family of Madalina Cojocari were seen lighting a fire in their backyard after she disappeared
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The family of 11-year-old Madalina Cojocari were seen building a fire burning sofa cushions and other items that burned for days in their backyard, in the days after she went missing, but weeks before she was reported missing. its disappearance, can reveal DailyMail.com.
Neighbors recall seeing flames and smoke billowing from the yard of the Victoria Bay Drive home in late November, prompting calls to the police and fire department in Cornelius, North Carolina.
Contacted by DailyMail.com on Wednesday evening, Cornelius Fire Chief Guerry Barbee acknowledged the fire but declined to discuss details.
The mother of Madalina Cojocari, of 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, 37, and stepfather Christopher Palmiter, 60, were arrested on December 17. Cojocari states that she last saw her daughter at 10 pm on November 23. Palmiter believes he didn’t see her for a full week before making a trip to Michigan on November 24.
“I can’t talk about it right now because of the investigation,” he said.
It was not until December 15, two weeks after the fire, that the girl’s mother, Diana Cojocari, reported her daughter missing.
Police later searched the property for evidence, along with FBI agents who scoured the yard for debris.
A neighbor who saw investigators search the house earlier this week told DailyMail.com they spent hours outside.
“They took all kinds of samples from the fire pit area,” he said. ‘I assume they were trying to find out if they burned anything of substance in there.
“It’s an unpleasant feeling to know that something like this happened in your neighborhood,” he added.
It is highly suspicious that the mother did not report the girl missing for two weeks.
Another neighbor told DailyMail.com that the fire was not a big problem at the time because no one knew the girl was missing.
“If you don’t know the context in which a girl was missing, it’s kind of an unimportant call,” he said. “At the time, it was more of a fire safety or permit issue.”
An arrest report obtained by DailyMail.com reveals that Madalina had been missing for three weeks when her mother
Diana Cojocari, 37, and Madalina’s stepfather, Christopher Palmiter, 60, were arrested over the weekend and charged with failing to report a missing child.
Madalina was last seen getting off a school bus on November 21 and disappeared on November 23, Cojocari said.
Three days later, on November 26, Palmiter returned home to North Carolina and was told by Cojocari that the girl was not at the home in Cornelius, a town north of Charlotte.
But she didn’t report the little girl missing until nearly three weeks later, on December 15, because she feared Palmiter’s reaction.
Police investigating the case noticed that the kitchen of the family home had an area blocked off with plywood, Queen City News informed. Palmiter said that he had been building a separate apartment.
Palmiter told police he last saw Madalina a week before she went missing.
Cojocari said that Madalina’s backpack and some of her clothes were not in the house.
She told police the young woman had no friends she would stay with, and being from Moldova, a former Soviet republic in Eastern Europe, she had no family in the area.
Cojocari added that she had been in contact with relatives in Moldova, who advised her to go to the police, but she resisted their pleas.
It is unclear how long Cojocari and her daughter have been living in the United States and when she married Palmiter.
Both Cojocari and Palmiter were arrested and charged with failing to report a missing child.
The FBI is now leading a search, and a spokesman said “there’s nothing we won’t do to find her.”
On Tuesday, the FBI worked with Cornelius police to begin searching the nearby lake.
Madalina was last seen getting off a school bus at her stop on November 21, police say.
“As part of the normal investigative process, we are expanding our search area outside of the home where Madalina was last seen to now include Lake Cornelius,” the police department said Tuesday.
Judicial officials said during their first court appearance Tuesday that Cojocari had “hindered the investigation” thus far.
They said he had only “reluctantly” reported his daughter’s disappearance to the police.
Despite a number of calls from her school in the following weeks, no one was notified that Madalina was missing.
On December 12, a school resource officer from Bailey High School went to Cojocari’s home with a counselor.
There was no answer at the door so they left a ‘true packet’.
On December 14, Cojocari called the school counselor and told her that she would take Madalina to school the next day.
In that meeting, Cojocari told the resource officer that Madalina had, in fact, been missing for weeks and was last seen going into her room to go to bed around 10 p.m. on November 23.
Cajocari also told school officials that she and her husband had an argument that night, prompting him to drive to his family’s Michigan home to collect his belongings.
It was at 11:30 a.m. on November 24 when Cojacari says he went to see Madalina and discovered that she was no longer in her room.
When Palmiter returned at 7 p.m. on November 26, Cojacari told police that she asked him if he knew where Madalina was and he said no.
At 11:30 a.m. on November 24, Diana Cojacari claimed that she went to see Madalina and discovered that she was no longer in her room.
“As part of the normal investigative process, we are expanding our search area outside of the home where Madalina was last seen to now include Lake Cornelius,” the police department said Tuesday.
Investigators searched Madalina’s family home, where her mother claims she was last seen going to bed.
Investigators were seen digging in the front yard of his home, but would not say if they found anything of interest.
After their arrest on December 17, the two were held at the Mecklenburg County Detention Center.
Police conducted a thorough search of his home and were seen digging up his front yard with shovels. It’s unclear if they found anything of interest.
Palmiter, who works as a mechanical designer at a machine manufacturer, is being held on $100,000 bond.
On Tuesday, Diana Cojocari’s bail was set at $250,000 and a condition was set that if she does keep bail, she will be placed under electronic surveillance. Both are currently being held at the Mecklenberg County Jail in Charlotte.
Madalina is 4 feet 10 inches tall, has dark brown hair, and weighs around 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.