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The mother and stepfather of an 11-year-old girl have been arrested for not reporting her missing for three weeks.
Madalina Cojocari was last seen at her home in Cornelius, North Carolina on the evening of Nov. 23, police said. But his mother and stepfather did not tell a school resource officer at Bailey Middle School that the sixth-grade student was missing until last Thursday.
Police began searching for Madalina the same day, and the FBI and State Bureau of Investigation joined the effort.
His mother, Diana Cojocari, 37, and stepfather Christopher Palmiter, 60, were taken into custody on Saturday. They were each charged with failing to report a missing child to law enforcement.
The couple are being held at the Mecklenburg County Detention Center, records show.
Meanwhile, Madalina’s search efforts have expanded to include Lake Cornelius which is near the family’s residence.
“We are conducting additional searches on land and in water as a precautionary measure,” police said.
Scrubbing the lake is a “precautionary measure” that “is part of the normal investigative process,” the FBI office in Charlotte said.
Investigators dug into the family’s backyard and were seen searching the house, WCCB reported. It wasn’t immediately clear if they had found any clues or evidence of where Madalina might be.
Madalina was last seen wearing jeans, a white t-shirt and jacket and white, pink and purple Adidas shoes. She was described as 4ft 10in tall and weighing 90lbs. An image of her that the public can identify has her wearing shorts that say, “I can change the world with love.” Madalina would have loved horses.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Cornelius Police Department.
Cornelius is about 20 miles north of Charlotte. Cornelius Lake is located across from Lake Norman in a secluded area east of Interstate 77.
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