Mother of missing Madalina Cojocari admits she failed to report daughter’s disappearance

Diana Cojocari, the mother of a girl who mysteriously disappeared from her Cornelius home after Thanksgiving 2022, pleaded guilty in court on Monday morning to failing to report her daughter missing.

Cojocari, 39, who was in the United States on a green card, will likely be released later Monday, said Mecklenburg Superior Court Judge Thomas Davis. She’s already served 17 months in the Mecklenburg County Detention Center — the maximum sentence for failing to report a child missing.

When released, it is “probable and highly likely” that Cojocari will be deported, Davis told her in court Monday.

Standing in jail scrubs between her retained lawyers, Daniel Roberts and a co-counsel, Cojocari said she understood.

Her release comes the same day her husband and co-defendant, Christopher Palmiter, was scheduled to begin trial. But a separate trial held in the same courtroom must come to a close before Palmiter’s trial can begin, said Mike Stolp, a spokesman for the Mecklenburg District Attorney’s Office.

Madalina Cojocari, now 13, remains missing.

School counselors called Diana Cojocari and Palmiter — Madalina’s stepfather — to Bailey Middle School after her teacher noticed a long absence following the Cornelius school’s 2022 Thanksgiving break. She was last seen Nov. 23, 2022, police say, but the couple didn’t report her missing until Dec. 15 of that year.

By Dec. 17, Cornelius police had arrested the couple, charging each with failure to report a missing child.

Palmiter posted his $25,000 bond, which was originally $200,000, and Cojocari has remained in jail under a $250,000 bond.

Both Cojocari and Palmiter have been interviewed by police, but neither have offered any explanation as to why they didn’t report the girl missing, prosecutors said in a previous court hearing. Only bits of conflicting information exist in court documents, and they tend to introduce more questions — none of which were answered.

At her last arraignment in February, Cojocari refused to leave her jail cell when she was scheduled to appear across the street in the courthouse.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

This story was originally published May 20, 2024, 11:09 AM.