The mother and stepfather of Madalina Cojocari, a missing 11-year-old girl in North Carolina, are “clearly” withholding information about her disappearance, police said in a statement Tuesday.
“We know everyone has a lot of questions,” Cornelius Police Captain Jennifer Thompson said in a video update on the case. “We also have questions and we are doing everything we can, with due legal authority, to get those answers.”
He added: “This is a serious case of a child whose parents are clearly not telling us everything they know.”
Diana Cojocari, 37, and her husband, Christopher Palmiter, 60, were arrested for failing to report the sixth grader missing for more than three weeks.
FAMILY OF MADALINA COJOCARI’S FAMILY MISSING HANDWRITTEN NOTE, ‘DVAVASTED’ AS SEARCH CONTINUES IN NORTH CAROLINA
Cornelius police arrested stepfather Christopher Palmiter and mother Diana Cojocari for failing to report missing 11-year-old Madalina Cojocari.
(Mecklenburg County Detention Center)
“Fortunately, the state of North Carolina has a law that makes it illegal if someone doesn’t report a missing child to the police,” Thompson said.
Cojocari said the girl was last seen on November 23 at her home, but did not report her missing until December 15.
MADALINA COJOCARI’S MISSING MOTHER SAYS HUSBAND PUT FAMILY IN DANGER: REPORT
“One of the challenges in this case, simply put, they didn’t notify us that he was gone, a three week delay,” Thompson said. “School officials repeatedly tried to contact Madalina’s parents. Finally, on December 15, Madalina’s mother entered the school and said that her daughter had disappeared.”
A photo of Madalina Cojocari, 11, missing, getting off the school bus on November 21.
(Twitter/@FBICharlotte)
Police have since launched a massive search, recruiting hundreds of agents, detectives, analysts and other employees of the FBI and state agencies.
Investigators investigated more than 250 leads, examined businesses and “scrolled through surveillance video,” Thompson said. Police have also conducted land and water searches at Lake Cornelius.
FBI RELEASES VIDEO OF MISSING 11-YEAR-OLD MADALINA COJOCARI FROM NORTH CAROLINA LEAVING THE SCHOOL BUS
In an affidavit obtained last week by the Queen City News, Cojocari told a detective that she “believed her husband had put her family in danger.”
Investigators said Madalina, a sixth grader, loves horses and ice cream.
(FBI Charlotte)
The couple argued the night Madalina allegedly disappeared and Palmiter drove to Michigan. But Cojocari did not tell her husband that the child had been gone for three days, according to the document, cited by the local media.
Palmiter told police that he last saw Madalina a week before he left for Michigan, according to the affidavit.
Madalina Cojocari disappeared on November 23, but her mother did not report her missing until more than three weeks later, on December 15.
(FBI Charlotte/Cornelius Police Department)
Last week, the FBI released a video showing Madalina getting off her school bus on November 21. It is the last confirmed sighting of the girl.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Anyone with information on Madalina or her whereabouts is asked to contact the Cornelius Police Department at 704-892-7773.
