Mom Burned Missing Daughter's Photos, Hid Bag of Cash, Paid Priest Thousands Then Fled U.S. — and Still No Sign of the Girl: Warrants

Madalina Cojocari will be 13 next month.

She would be in junior high now were she back home in North Carolina, but instead she remains missing almost three years after she disappeared without a trace.

Now, new details about that disappearance are being brought to light thanks to newly unsealed search warrants.

PEOPLE obtained all 32 of the newly unsealed warrants, which allege that Madalina’s mother and stepfather burned her belongings, paid thousands to a priest in her home country of Moldova and informed Madalina’s grandmother of a large bag of cash she had hidden away.

Authorities did arrest Diana Cojocari and her husband, Christopher Palmiter, just a few weeks after she disappeared, but having served time for that crime, the two are now free.

Now, Diana is back home in Moldova, even as no one can find her daughter.

Among the newly unsealed warrants filed in the case is one seeking access to the family home.

In that warrant, Det. J.J. Sarver of the Cornelius Police Department writes that he went to the home of Cojocari and Palmiter to speak with the two and saw evidence of a fire pit in the backyard.

That is when Palmiter told him that Madalina’s “mattress, clothing, Halloween costume and family photos” had been burned in the pit in the weeks since she went missing, according to the warrant.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.   

Meanwhile, Det. Gina Patterson of the CPD sought access all of Diana’s known bank accounts in a series of warrants tied to payments allegedly made by the mother.

The first financial decision that drew suspicion occurred days after Madalina went missing, when Diana made the first of two payments to a priest in Moldova that totaled $4,000 in the end, according to the affidavit.

She also said in a phone call with her mother from prison that she had hidden a large bag of cash, a separate affidavit states.

In none if the calls, however, did Diana or Palmiter say anything about Madalina’s whereabouts,

Madalina was last seen exiting her school bus on Nov. 22, 2022.

Search efforts for Madalina did not get underway until three weeks later, when the girl’s school forced Diana to address her daughter’s truancy, according to the probable cause affidavit. That delay in reporting Madalina missing is what led to charges being filed against Diana and Palmiter.

A grand jury then indicted both Diana and Palmiter on a single count of failing to report the disappearance of a child.

Court records show that Madalina moved to the United States with her mother in 2016, when Diana wed Palmiter.

Prosecutors entered an image from that day as evidence when Palmiter stood trial last year, which ended with a jury convicting him for failing to report his stepdaughter missing, He was sentenced to 30 months probation.

Diana entered a guilty plea to a single count of failure to report a child missing one month prior, but the judge credited her for 521 days time served and ordered her release the following day.

Just last week, the couple finalized their divorce according to court records.