Madalina Cojocari remains missing and her mother Diana remains in jail. Diana skipped her arraignment despite the possibility of being released after already spending 14 months in jail, charged with a felony that has a maximum sentence of 24 months.
The mother of missing girl Madalina Cojocari did not attend her arraignment on Friday, despite waiting 14 months for that court hearing.
Diana Cojocari was scheduled to be arraigned last week on a single count of failure to report the disappearance of a child twice, but did not attend either hearing, court records show.
The Cornelius Police Department arrested Cojocari on Dec. 17, 2022 and booked her into the Mecklenburg County Jail, according to records. That is two days after Madalina's mother reported her daughter, then 11, missing and three weeks after the last time she claimed to have seen the child.
It was for that alleged delay in reporting that Cojocari and Madalina's stepfather, Christopher Palmiter, were charged with failure to report a missing child.
The docket shows that Cojocari had been scheduled for an in-person appearance on Monday, but the court continued that to Friday.
On Friday, Cojocari again did not arrive in court and the docket says that appearance is continued once again, with no new date at this time.
Under North Carolina law, any parent who "knowingly or wantonly fails to report the disappearance of a child to law enforcement" is charged with a Class I felony.
Should Cojocari be convicted, she would face a maximum sentence of 24 months. Should she get credit for time served, she would only be facing 10 months at most, having already served 14 months of that sentence.
A spokesperson for the Mecklenburg County District Attorney's Office told Inside Edition Digital that Cojocari is still listed on the jail roster as an active inmate, her bond is set at $250,000 and confirmed that a new date has not been set for her arraignment.
Palmiter posted bail in August but is required to wear an ankle monitor at all times. He claims to have been in Michigan visiting family on the days that Madalina went missing.
His lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
The search for the missing girl has now spanned the state of North Carolina and beyond.
A month after her disappearance, search efforts moved from Madalina's home to Madison County, a densely forested but sparsely populated area deep in the Appalachian Mountains.
Police officers with the Cornelius Police Department moved search efforts to this remote and rugged section of western North Carolina after reports that Cojocari's car was sighted in the area. Detectives then began the process of reaching out to residents of Madison County to ask if they had seen Madalina, her mother or her mother's car during the days and weeks around Madalina's disappearance.
Inside Edition Digital learned that multiple residents did in fact speak with investigators, and some of those residents did report seeing Cojocari's car in the area during the days after Madalina's disappearance.
A photo of Madalina posing at the summit of Mount Mitchell in neighboring Yancey County confirmed that she had at least visited that area of the state before she went missing, which is located three hours from her home in the town of Cornelius.
The Cornelius Police Department has refused to give up the search for Madalina, however, and hosted a group prayer gathering on the anniversary of her disappearance in November, as well as a party for her 12th birthday.
The girl's grandmother also has a theory as to what has happened to Madalina.
"My granddaughter is alive, but she's been kidnapped," Rodica Cojocari told WCNC outside court this past August, when Cojocari and Palmiter appeared before a judge after being charged with failing to report Madalina's disappearance for over three weeks.
Rodica also claimed that Madalina's stepfather masterminded the sale of his stepdaughter in her interview with WCNC.
"Chris Palmiter is the instrument," Rodica said. "He stalked them for two years. [They] had no documents in his home. He stole their documents and held them in the home ... like prisoners."
Rodica also alleged in her interview that Palmiter drugged Madalina and her mother before selling the girl for $5 million.
"Lately, he would use narcotics to make them sleep, both Madalina and Diana," Rodica told WCNC. "He used these narcotics in their juice. Diana and Madalina drank it, and he took Madalina out of the bedroom and gave her over to traffickers. I don't know to whom."
Palmiter's lawyer and Cojocari's public defender did not respond to requests for comment. Both entered a plea of not guilty to the charge of failure to report a child missing in August and maintain that they do not know what happened to Madalina.
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