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The mother of a missing 11-year-old girl said she believed her husband “put their family in danger” as a bonfire was known to burn for days after she went missing, and the FBI released a handwritten note from the family asking for help. in finding it.
Madalina Cojocari was last seen on November 21 getting off a school bus and disappeared on November 23, said her mother, Diana Cojocari.
On the day of her disappearance, Cojocari, 37, had argued with her husband Christopher Palmiter, 60, and Palmiter angrily drove to Michigan that night.
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.
Both Cojocari and Palmiter were arrested and charged with failure to report the disappearance: On Thursday, WCNC reported that Cojocari told police she felt her husband was a threat.
Madalina Cojocari’s mother says she last saw her on November 23, three weeks before reporting her missing at school.
An arrest report obtained by DailyMail.com reveals that Madalina had been missing for three weeks when her mother reported her missing.
Madalina’s mother, Diana Cojocari (left), 36, and stepfather Christopher Palmiter, 60, were arrested on December 17. Cojocari claims that she last saw her daughter at 10 pm on November 23, Palmiter believes that he did not see her for a full week before making a trip to Michigan on November 24
It was not clear why Cojocari felt that her husband, Madalina’s stepfather, “put their family in danger.”
Cojocari’s relatives in Moldova, where she was born, urged her to tell police the girl was reportedly missing, but Cojocari resisted.
On Thursday, the FBI released a handwritten letter “from Madalina’s family” asking for help finding her.
They did not specify who the relatives were, or on which side of the family. Palmiter had family in Michigan, but Cojocari said there were no relatives in North Carolina and he didn’t know anyone Madalina would have wanted to visit.
“We love Madalina and are shocked by these circumstances,” the family letter says.
“This is something that no child or family should have to put up with.”
The author described Madalina as a “beautiful, intelligent, kind and caring 11-year-old girl with a big future.”
They added: ‘We are desperate to find her right now, she needs all our help.
“We ask for your continued positive support in sharing Madalina’s posters and photos far and wide.”
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.
The letter came when DailyMail.com discovered that the family was seen building a fire and burning sofa cushions and other items that burned for days in their backyard, in the days after she went missing.
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.
Cornelius Fire Chief Guerry Barbee confirmed to DailyMail.com the report of the fire but declined to discuss details.
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 did not raise suspicions 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.”
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.
Madalina’s relatives in Moldova pressured her mother to alert the police, but she refused.
Cojocari did not report the girl missing to her school 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.
He told police that the young woman had no friends to stay with and that, being from Moldova, she had no family in the area.
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.
“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.
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.
Cojocari 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.
After their arrest on December 17, the two were being held at the Mecklenburg County Detention Center.
The police carried out a thorough search of his house and they were seen digging up the courtyard of the fountain with shovels. It’s unclear if they found anything of interest.
His stepfather, Palmiter, who works as a mechanical designer for 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.
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.