The stepfather of an 11-year-old girl who went missing in 2022 said he doesn’t think the child will ever be found.
Stepdad Christopher Palmiter, 61, was sentenced to 30 days of supervised probation for failing to report Madalina Cojocari missing. He had previously served 200 days in jail for the crime. The child went missing in Cornelius, North Carolina, in November 2022, however it wasn’t reported to police until Dec. 15, 2022. Her mother, Diana Cojocari, has also pleaded guilty to the same charge.
Last month, it took a jury 15 minutes to convict Palmiter.
Speaking during his five-day trial, Palmiter said he believes the child’s mother, Diana Cojocari, 38, took the child to an unknown location.
“I think Diana took her somewhere with her Moldovan family, I don’t know, I think she tucked her away somewhere where no one would find her,” he said.
The child was born in Moldova and was enrolled in the sixth-grade at Bailey Middle School before going missing.
Prosecutors suggested Madalina’s mother and grandmother colluded to smuggle the child from the couple’s North Carolina home before she disappeared. Authorities said that the mother and stepfather got into an argument on November 23, 2022, and believed the child was in her bedroom around 10pm that night.
The next day, she was gone.
The child was last seen getting off a school bus and has not been seen since. Prosecutor Austin Butler said that Palmiter’s actions were part of the reason Madalina could be located.
“He was the person in the role of supervising her, and he failed,” he said during closing arguments,” according to WCCB. “That’s why he’s sitting in this seat.”
An FBI analyst presented phone and email evidence during the trial showing that Palmiter knew that the child was missing and where she might be. A prosecutor told the court the suggestion Palmiter had been home for three weeks and didn’t know where the child had gone was laughable.
