The FBI is asking for the public’s help in the search for a missing 11-year-old girl from North Carolina, Madalina Cojocari.
The agency released a short video of the sixth grader walking off a school bus two days before she is believed to have gone missing. They are asking anyone with any information about her disappearance to come forward.
“This is the last time investigators have independent confirmation of when Madalina was last seen,” the FBI in Charlotte, N.C., wrote on Twitter. The video was taken on Nov. 21 at 4:59 p.m.
The parents of Cojocari told investigators that they last saw her on Nov. 23, but delayed reporting her missing until Dec. 15 — a whole three weeks after she supposedly disappeared.
The missing girl’s mother, Diana Cojocari, 31, was arrested on Saturday for failure to report the disappearance of a child to law enforcement, according to a press release from the Cornelius Police Department. The girl’s stepfather, Christopher Palmiter, 60, was later booked on the same charges, according to inmate records.
The FBI said employees from Cojocari’s middle school contacted the girl’s mother “on several occasions” about Cojocari being absent from school.
“After repeated contact, Diana Cojocari went to Bailey Middle School on December 15, 2022, and reported to the School Resource Officer, Madalina was missing,” the FBI stated.
The 20-second video shows Cojocari wearing a plain T-shirt and backpack as she walks off a school bus, fixing her necklace and hair as she disembarks. This is the girl’s last verified location.
“The Cornelius Police Department, the FBI, and the SBI (North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation) are continuing the investigation to find 11-year-old Madalina Cojocari,” investigators said upon release of the video. “We are seeking additional witnesses outside of the family to narrow down the exact timeline of when she disappeared.”
Cojocari is described in her missing poster as being four feet and 10 inches tall and weighing 90 pounds. She has brown hair and is a fan of horses, police said.
Police updates on social media about the investigation into Cojocari’s disappearance have been flooded with well-wishers.
On Monday, police announced that they had expanded their search area for the 11-year-old to include nearby Lake Cornelius as “a precautionary measure.”
“There’s nothing we won’t do to #FindMadalina,” police wrote.