Mother of missing North Carolina girl leaves the United States, officials confirm

CORNELIUS, N.C. — A mother is reported to have left the country months after pleading guilty to failing to report her missing child in a case that gained national attention.

Diana Cojocari has left the United States, a spokesperson for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) told WCNC Charlotte on Tuesday. It’s not known when Cojocari left the country.

Madalina Cojocari went missing in November 2022 when she was 11 years old. She was last seen getting off her school bus in Cornelius in 2022. She has not been seen since.

Diana Cojocari and stepfather Christopher Palmiter had both been charged with failing to report the disappearance of the young girl. The parents were accused of waiting nearly a month to report the disappearance.

Diana Cojocari has been formally named as a suspect in the young girl’s 2022 disappearance.

In a social media post in July, the Cornelius Police Department referred to Cojocari for the first time publicly as a suspect. Never before in the year-and-a-half since the girl was last seen had a suspect been officially named in the case.

Days after that post was made, Diana Cojocari posted to Facebook and appeared to indicate she was leaving the country.

Diana Cojocari had been released from jail in May a day after pleading guilty to failing to report her daughter’s disappearance. Diana Cojocari had previously pleaded not guilty to the charge. Her release was possible because the maximum prison sentence is 24 months, minus time already served. At the time, Cojocari had spent 520 days in jail after being arrested in December 2022.

A jury found Palmiter guilty of failing to report the disappearance of Madalina earlier this year.

Neither Diana Cojocari nor Palmiter have ever been charged with anything other than the failure to report Madalina’s disappearance.

Diana Cojocari moved to the United States from Moldova. Officials did not say specifically where she left.

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