Police officer Jennifer Thompson is still frustrated at how long it took Madalina Cojocari’s parents to report their 11-year-old daughter missing.
But Thompson, the deputy chief of the Cornelius, N.C., police department, the agency leading the search for Madalina, has not given up hope that the girl will be found.
“That’s not just me being a mother who’s hopeful,” Thompson said. “I do believe that we will find her.”
Madalina was last seen in surveillance footage getting off a school bus on November 21, 2023, days before her school went on Thanksgiving break. It would be another three weeks before police were finally notified of her disappearance, after school officials confronted Madalina’s mother, Diana Cojocari, according to police search warrants reviewed
When asked how to define the case, Thompson used the word “frustrating,” referring to the fact that Madalina’s parents notified authorities about her disappearance so late.
“I don’t want anybody to think that after three weeks [mom Diana Cojocari] had this, ‘OK, well, it’s time,’” Thompson says. “She didn’t.”
Diana, 39, and her husband, Christopher Palmiter, 62, who is Madalina’s stepfather, were both charged with failure to report a missing child. Palmiter was convicted following a May 2024 trial, while Diana pleaded guilty that same month.
After Diana was released from jail on time served, police officially named her a suspect in her daughter’s disappearance, though she has not been charged with any further crimes.
And the mystery of Madalina’s whereabouts remains. Police have not given up on trying to find the girl.
“It’s not that there’s this inactive case file sitting somewhere,” Thompson says about the case. “We talk about it every day.”
After Madalina was officially reported missing on Dec. 15, 2022, Cornelius police, who have been assisted by the FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as well as volunteers, began an exhaustive search.
Despite chasing hundreds of leads, searching several locations — including a local lake — and closely examining both Diana and Palmiter, police have uncovered no sign of Madalina.
Diana Cojocari, left, and Christopher Palmiter.
Mecklenburg Co Sheriffs Office
Search warrants reviewed by PEOPLE state that after Madalina was reported missing, Diana told police that she had last seen her daughter on Nov. 23, two days after she got off the bus and a day before Palmiter left their North Carolina home to drive to Michigan to pick up something from his family’s home.
Both Diana and Palmiter have denied knowing where Madalina could be, and their decision not to report her missing right away came as a surprise to police.
“It’s mind-blowing, to be quite honest with you,” Thompson says. “As a parent myself, if I couldn’t find one of my kids or if the house was quiet for 30 seconds, I’m panicking.”
Madalina Cojocari. Jessica Alba/Instagram
The search for Madalina has galvanized a community, both in Cornelius and online. The police department itself has held community gatherings to mark significant dates — including the anniversary of her disappearance and Madalina’s 12th birthday — in the nearly two years since she has gone missing, while missing person posters remain up in the lakeside suburb.
Online, a Facebook group dedicated to locating the missing girl, who would now be 13, has nearly 5,000 members, many of whom are internet sleuths determined to follow clues that could lead to Madalina.
“The support that we’ve had has been great from the beginning,” says Thompson. “[The community is] frustrated, obviously, but they understand and trust that we’re doing everything in our power to bring Madalina home.”
Madalina Cojocari missing poster.
The US Sun/ MEGA
Questions are now being asked online about the current whereabouts of Diana. After she pleaded guilty to failing to report a missing child, Diana was released from jail on time served. But even though her Moldovan passport was surrendered to authorities during the initial investigation, a spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement tell PEOPLE that the agency has a record of her leaving the country, though no further information on her location were provided.
Thompson says after her release from jail, Diana traveled to the Moldovan embassy in Washington, D.C., where she was able to obtain a new passport. And since Diana has not been charged with any additional crimes, police were unable to prevent her from leaving the country.
Palmiter, meanwhile, has begun settling back into life in Cornelius, a neighbor tells PEOPLE. Sentenced to 30 months of supervised probation, Palmiter is back in the home he once shared with Madalina and Diana. He filed for divorce in June, according to court records.
Levon Handsome, 46, a neighbor in Cornelius who used to see Madalina walk by her house nearly every day, is holding out hope for her safe return.
“It’s a heart-wrenching reality,” Handsome says. “I wish Maddie would magically reappear.”
