The FBI is working with local police in South Carolina to search a lake for a missing 11-year-old girl days after her parents were arrested for failing to report her missing.
Madalina Cojocari’s parents claim they last saw her on November 23 – 22 days before reporting her missing to her school.
Her mother, Diana Cojocari, 37, and step father, Christopher Palmiter, 60, never officially reported her ‘disappearance’ to the police and were arrested on December 17.
The expanded search comes as the FBI said ‘there’s nothing we won’t do to find’ her and police released surveillance footage of Madalina exiting a school bus on November 21 – the last ‘independent’ confirmation they have of her whereabouts.
Madalina Cojocari’s parents claim they last saw her on November 23 – 22 days before reporting her missing to her school
On Tuesday the FBI worked with Cornelius Police started 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 and that now includes Lake Cornelius,’ the police department said on Tuesday.
Court officials said during her first court appearance on Tuesday that Diana Cojocari had ‘hindered the investigation’ so far and had only ‘begrudgingly’ reported her disappearance to the police.
According to Cojocari, Madalina was last seen in Cornelius, a town just north of Charlotte in which they lived, on November 23.
Despite a number calls from her school in the following weeks enquiring as to her whereabouts, they were not notified that she was missing.
Finally on December 12 a school resource officer at Bailey Middle School went to her home with a counselor but there was no answer at the door so they left a ‘truancy packet.’
Madalina was last seen exiting a school bus at her stop on November 21, police say
Diana Cojocari (left), 36, and Christopher Palmiter, 60, were arrested on December 17. She claims she last saw her daughter at 10pm on November 23, he says he didn’t see her for a full week before making a trip to Michigan on November 24
Then, on December 14, Diana Cojocari called the counselor and initially told her that she would bring Madalina into school the following day.
Instead the resource officer was told that Madalina had in fact been missing for weeks and was last seen entering her room to go to bed at around 10pm on November 23.
She also said that she and her husband, Palmiter, argued that night, causing him to drive to his family home in Michigan in the morning.
It was at 11.30am on November 24 that Diana Cojacari went to check on Madalina to find she was no longer in her room.
When Palmiter returned at 7pm on November 26 Cojacari asked if her knew where Madalina was, but he did not.
At 11.30am on November 24 Diana Cojacari claimed she went to check on Madalina to find 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 and that now includes Lake Cornelius,’ the police department said on Tuesday
For the next three weeks the two both claim they discussed Madalina’s whereabouts but at no point reported her missing.
When asked by officers why she did not report her daughter missing she told them she feared it would start a ‘conflict’ with her husband.
Palmiter told officers he thought he had not seen the girl for a week before he went on the trip to Michigan.
Investigators searched the Madalina’s family home, where her mother claims she was last seen going to bed
Investigators were seen digging up the front yard of her home but did not reveal if anything of interest was found
After their arrest on December 17, both parents were being held at at the Mecklenburg County Detention Center.
Police carried out a thorough search of their home and were seen digging up the font yard with shovels. it is not clear whether they found anything of interest.
Her stepfather Christopher Palmiter, who works as a mechanical designer at a machinery manufacturer is being held on $100,000 bond.
On Tuesday Diana Cojocari’s bond was set at $250,000 bond and a condition was set that if she makes bond she will be placed under electronic monitoring.
Madalina is 4 feet 10 inches, has dark brown hair and weighs about 90 pounds. She was last seen wearing jeans, pink, purple and white Adidas shoes, and a white T-shirt and jacket.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Cornelius Police Department at 704-892-7773 or 1-800- CALL FBI.
