Prosecutors begin case against stepfather of missing girl Madalina Cojocari

For 23 days, Christopher Palmiter didn’t know the location of his stepdaughter, Madalina Cojocari, a Mecklenburg County prosecutor said during opening argument to a jury Friday.

“When all of this is wrapped up, you’re not going to have the answer of what happened to Madalina,” Assistant District Attorney Austin Butler said. “But you’ll have one answer: And that’s the defendant is guilty of failure to report the disappearance of Madalina.”

The Cornelius girl, then 11, mysteriously disappeared in 2022 following her school’s Thanksgiving break.

In December 2022, mother Diana Cojocari and Palmiter were charged with failing to report her missing. The couple gave police conflicting information, both insinuating that the other “hid” Madalina somewhere and that each suddenly had a large bag of money following her disappearance.

Madalina’s whereabouts remain unknown.

Diana Cojocari pleaded guilty to the charge Monday and was released from jail after spending about 17 months there.

Butler and Palmiter’s attorney, Brandon Roseman, both made opening arguments Friday to the jury in the case against Palmiter, 61. Jurors also heard from the state’s first two witnesses.

The jury for the trial in Mecklenburg Superior Court is made up of 11 men and one woman. Two alternate jurors, both women, were also selected Friday.

Next week, jurors will hear testimony from Cornelius police detectives.

Roseman told jurors that prosecutors had made numerous assumptions about Palmiter and that it was their duty to consider all of the information and context presented in order to render a fair verdict.

State’s first witness

Tina Rorie, Madalina’s bus driver before her disappearance, testified that she remembered Madalina because their names rhymed, and because Madalina always thanked the driver before getting off the bus.

Rorie said when she would drop her off after school, she’d see Madalina run towards her house and go inside. Asked if she’d seen Madalina with any adults, Rorie said she saw her once walking with a man who she assumed was her father.

The jury was shown footage from the last time Madalina rode the bus, on Nov. 21, 2022. Rorie was asked to identify Madalina in the video, and as she did so, she began to cry.

State’s second witness

School counselor Danice Lampkin at Bailey Middle School made several attempts to contact Palmiter and Diana Cojocari after noticing Madalina had numerous absences in 2022.

She said she didn’t know Madalina personally but tracked student attendance. She made sure, as a rule, to contact families when students had two absences.

Butler presented several documents from Madalina’s school file that contained things such as her birth certificate, student enrollment form and emergency contact form and her class schedule.

Lampkin said Madalina was doing well academically but that the absences prompted Lampkin to try to contact Diana Cojocari by phone and emails. When she couldn’t reach her, she tried Palmiter, who was listed in Madalina’s school documents as having permission to pick her up from school.

But she couldn’t reach him either, she said, despite leaving several voicemails in November and December 2022 and sending emails.

Butler played those five voicemails for the jury.

In the final two voicemails, Lampkin informed the family that she’d be making a home visit if they didn’t respond, to check on the welfare of Madalina and drop off what is known as a truancy packet, which contained things such as her attendance record.

Lampkin said she was able to get in contact with a third person identified as “Sandy” on Madalina’s emergency contact form who was not authorized to pick her up from school. Lampkin spoke with this person twice, she said. The person said Madalina was sick.

After speaking with that person, the school received notification through a contact form on the school’s website that Madalina was sick. The form said it was submitted by Diana Cojocari, but Lampkin said there isn’t a way to know if it actually was submitted by her or not.

Lampkin attempted to visit Madalina’s home to drop off the packet, but no one answered, so she left the packet at the door.

The day after dropping off the packet, in December, Lampkin said, she finally heard back from Diana Cojocari who said she wanted to meet. Lampkin said she stressed that she needed to bring Madalina, but Diana never affirmed the request.

And the day after the phone call, Diana showed up to school without Madalina. She told Lampkin her daughter was missing. Lampkin went to the school resource officer. Palmiter showed up later to speak with the school resource officer.

Madalina was never reported missing to the school prior to the meeting, she said.

Defense attorney cross-examination

Roseman, Palmiter’s attorney, asked Lampkin about the school documents in the file that were shown to the jury.

Roseman said the documents showed that Diana Cojocari was listed as Madalina’s legal guardian, not Palmiter. Palmiter didn’t sign on a line designating legal guardians.

The father line on Madalina’s birth certificate was blank, Roseman said, showing the document.

Roseman asked Lampkin if she knew if Palmiter had any parental rights to Madalina, and she said she didn’t know.

He also noted that Lampkin couldn’t be sure that Palmiter lived at the address listed on Madalina’s school files. He asked if she knew whether or not he received the voicemails and emails, and she said she didn’t know. He said that because she doesn’t know his life or work schedule, she couldn’t be certain he ever received those communications.

Butler, however, showed the jury a deed to a house that was co-owned by Diana Cojocari and Palmiter. The address on the deed matched the address on Madalina’s school documents.

The trial will resume at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, May 28.