CORNELIUS, N.C. — A social media post claims Diana Corjocari, the mother of missing Cornelius girl Madalina Cojocari and who has recently been named a suspect in her daughter's disappearance, has left the country.
People sharing this post claim it's from Diana Cojocari's Facebook page. The post says Diana Cojocari is heading to John F. Kennedy International Airport to then head back to Eastern Europe where she hasn't been in nine years.
Here is what we did to get some clarity on this.
SOURCES:
WHAT WE FOUND:
Diana Cojocari was released from jail in May after pleading guilty to not reporting Madalina Cojocari missing. Then, on June 25, the Cornelius Police Department said Diana is considered a suspect in her daughter's disappearance. However, she has not been charged with any other crimes.
Attorney Gary Mauney told WCNC as long as a person has not been charged with anything, they are free to go wherever they want, even if they are a suspect.
WCNC Charlotte's Verify Team did a reverse Google image search on the post that claims to be Diana's Facebook page, and nothing came up, meaning it, at least, isn't copied from anywhere else.
After several attempts to contact Cornelius Police, the department released the following statement:
The police department is aware of the posts that indicate Diana Cojocari may have left the country however we cannot confirm where exactly she went. None of her property was released and we are unable to prevent her from leaving the country. She does not currently have any active warrants for her arrest.
But what about her passport? As recently as June, the police said it still had possession of it.
"Her passports were seized at the beginning of the investigation, those remain in our custody, but what she could possibly do and where she could potentially go is always on our mind," Thompson said.
So how could she leave the country? Diana could have been granted an emergency passport.
WCNC Charlotte's Meghan Bragg went to her house in Cornelius just to see if she could talk to her, but no one answered the door.
The house was pretty dark, and it didn't look like anyone was there. It's really hard to tell if she did, in fact, leave the country, as airlines also don't have to disclose if a passenger was on a flight or not.
Contact Meghan Bragg at mbragg@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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