It has been 19 months since Madalina Cojocari went missing from her home in North Carolina , but the Federal Bureau of Investigation and local police have yet to give up hope that they will find the now-13-year-old girl.
But their search efforts, they say, are getting no help from Madalinas's mother Diana Cojocari or her stepfather, Christopher Palmiter . The two have both been released from jail after being credited with time served for failing to report Madaslina missing for weeks, but both continue to keep quiet about the girl or her possible whereabouts.
Further complicating that situation now is the fact that Palmiter filed for divorce from Cojocari on Monday, and during his trial last month testified under oath that the two never consummated their marriage.
His filing and admission come in the wake of a judge informing Cojocari that she will likely be deported due to her felony conviction, meaning that if Madalina is discovered, she might have no one to go home to.
Madalina moved to the United States with her mother in 2016, when Cojocari wed Palmiter. Prosecutors entered an image from that day as evidence in the Palmiter case, which ended with a jury convicting him for failing to report his stepdaughter missing, A judge then sentenced him to30 months of supervised probation.
Cojocari entered a guilty plea to a single count of failure to report a child missing last month but the judge gave her credit for the 521 days she had already spent in jail and ordered her release the following day.
Her release corresponded with the start of Palmiter's trial, and last week marked the first time since their arrests that the two were living together in the same home.
In his filing, Palmiter lists the date of their separation as Dec. 17, 2022, which is the day the pair were arrested for failing to report Madalina missing.
MCDA
There has been much speculation about Madalina's whereabouts since then, and search efforts have extended across the state.
Cojocari has kept quiet, though it was revealed at Palmiter's trial that she and her mother discussed the possibility that Palmiter sold the girl for money. Palmiter denies this and has never been charged with such a crime.
It is a theory that Madalina's grandmother first shared with reporters months ago."My granddaughter is alive, but she's been kidnapped," Rodica Cojocari told WCNC outside court this past August.
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."
Search efforts for Madalina did not get underway until more than three weeks after her disappearance, which is when her school forced Cojocari to address her daughter's truancy.
Lawyers for Palmiter and Cojocari did not respond to requests for comment.
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