Christopher Palmiter is seen here testifying in his May 2024 trial for failing to report his stepdaughter, Madalina Cojocari, missing. (Image of Madalina in the inset: Cornelius Police Department; screenshot of Palmiter: WCNC)
Jurors reportedly took a mere 15 minutes to convict a North Carolina stepfather of failing to report a young girl missing, but that leaves the key question unanswered. Where is Madalina Cojocari? The child was last seen on surveillance footage leaving the school bus for her home in the town of Cornelius on Nov. 21, 2022, and it was not until the middle of the following month that authorities discovered her disappearance because she kept being absent from school.
Scrutiny quickly fell on her mother Diana Cojocari and stepfather Christopher Palmiter, who were charged with failing to report her missing. Cops accused the couple of withholding information. The criminal cases against the couple reached their conclusion this month, with Diana pleading guilty and Palmiter losing at his trial.
His defense lawyer, Brandon Roseman, maintained the stepfather’s innocence in Madalina’s disappearance.
“You heard the state say Palmiter was her father,” Roseman said in closing arguments, according to Charlotte NBC affiliate WCNC. “Yes, Palmiter wanted to be her father. He loved her, and he wants her back. He just doesn’t know where she is. Diana never told him.”
The disappearance
As previously reported, Diana Cojocari allegedly told cops that she last saw her daughter on Nov. 23, 2022, and that when she went to check on her on Nov. 24, which was Thanksgiving, Madalina was not in her room.
“Diana Cojocari stated she waited until Saturday, November 26th at 1900 hours, when Christopher Palmiter returned home [from a Michigan road trip] before asking if he knew where Madalina was,” police wrote.
Palmiter claimed not to know and he asked Diana the same question, defendant Cojocari allegedly said.
“I [the affiant] asked Diana why she did not report Madalina missing until now,” authorities said. “Diana stated she was worried it might start a ‘conflict’ between her and Christopher.”
Madalina went missing at age 11. She would be 13 now.
Closing arguments and sentencing
Palmiter’s defense painted Diana Cojocari as controlling and manipulative. Roseman reportedly said that it appeared that Diana Cojocari planned on leaving town, based on the $8,000 and passport authorities discovered in her purse.
During the early days of Madalina’s disappearance, the mother kept Palmiter in the dark by claiming that Madalina was sick in her own room, the defense maintained. Diana Cojocari placed Flonase around the home to make Palmiter think Madalina was sick, and she stopped him from bringing a slice of pizza to the child, instead taking it and saying she would bring it herself.
Jurors saw video in which Palmiter told cops that he believed Madalina was in her room after he returned from his road trip.
The state emphasized Palmiter’s own legal responsibility to caring for Madalina. Jurors should find him guilty if he did not know Madalina’s whereabouts and had no contact with her for more than 24 hours, the prosecution said.
“He’s the only father she ever had,” the state said.
Since Palmiter already spent about eight months in jail, the judge suspended a sentence of six to 17 months behind bars, but put him on 30 months of supervised probation. At the time of her guilty plea, Diana Cojocari already spent the maximum time behind bars. She acknowledged at her hearing that she likely faces deportation back to her birth nation of Moldova. She did not testify at Palmiter’s trial.
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