CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Two drug charges filed against the mother of missing Cornelius girl Madalina Cojocari have been dismissed, court documents reveal.
North Carolina Superior Court documents filed in Mecklenburg County obtained by WCNC Charlotte show that charges against Diana Cojocari for possession of cocaine and fentanyl while in jail were dismissed on July 6. The charges were dismissed due to insufficient evidence to prosecute Cojocari, the documents say.
Cojocari was originally indicted by a grand jury on the charges in late April. An arrest warrant claimed that "a small clear plastic bag containing a white powder" was found in Cojocari's shirt pocket. The substance was sent to a lab for testing and returned a positive result for "cocaine and fentanyl-based" substances. Cojocari told a judge that the drugs weren't hers and she found the baggie in the shower.
The 38-year-old and her husband, Christopher Palmiter, were first arrested in December for failing to report Madalina's disappearance. Diana Cojocari claimed she last saw her daughter at their home on Nov. 23, 2022. She reportedly told administrators at Bailey Middle School that Madalina had been missing since Nov. 22, 2022, after she arrived at the school without her. The FBI released a video showing Madalina on a school bus on Nov. 21, 2022. It's the last confirmed sighting of Madalina.
Unsealed search warrants revealed that surveillance photos of a man and a child in Sugar Mountain were "physically consistent" with Cojocari and her only known blood relative in the U.S. Court records showed that during a recorded phone call, Diana Cojocari discussed a big bag of money and "a theory that Chris gave the girl away for money."
A search warrant showed that investigators seized four items from the family's home during a search in late December. Those items were redacted from the documents, but it was confirmed detectives were looking for evidence related to a missing person.
Investigators also uncovered a Facebook message between Palmiter and a family member saying, “We are in some kind of investigation, Madi is missing and the local police have taken all of our electronics luckily I have an old phone. Although they did not take my personal computer, probably because they overlooked it. Diana is using it now to call her parents.”
According to the warrants, investigators reviewed phone records revealing "extensive communication on Dec. 2, 2022" with that relative. That person's phone records showed "multiple calls to phone numbers belonging to unidentified targets involved in ongoing T3 drug/narcotic trafficking investigations."
A "T3" investigation involves a wiretap of a phone, WCNC Charlotte learned. Diana Cojocari and Palmiter have been in jail for months for failing to report their daughter missing, but both have maintained they don't know what happened to Madalina.
Cornelius Police are asking anyone with information on Madalina's disappearance to give detectives a call at 704-892-7773.