Missing 12-Year-Old Girl Was Trafficked for $5 Million Dollars, Her Grandmother Says

The grandmother of a 12-year-old who has been missing for nine months said last week she thinks the girl was sold to human traffickers for $5 million.

“My granddaughter is alive, but she’s been kidnapped,” Rodica Cojocari told Charlotte, North Carolina news outlet WCNC-TV last week.

Madalina Cojocari, then 11 years old, was reportedly last seen Nov. 23, 2022.

The girl’s mother, Diana Cojocari, claimed she saw the girl that night, but the next morning she was missing.

Her husband, Christopher Palmiter, said he had left that morning to drive to Michigan “to recover some items” after arguing with his wife, Fox News reported.

Neither parent reported the girl missing until three weeks later.

Diana Cojocari told she told police she delayed reporting her daughter’s disappearance because she “didn’t want to start a conflict” with her husband.

The two were arrested in December for failure to report a missing child to police.

Rodica Cojocari said she blames her daughter’s husband for the situation.

The grandmother of Madalina Cojocari is claiming that the missing girl was sold to traffickers in an explosive new interview.https://t.co/CzDYMwZ0iA

— Inside Edition (@InsideEdition) August 21, 2023

“Chris Palmiter is the instrument,” she said, according to WCNC. “He stalked them for two years. [They] had no documents in his home. He stole their documents and held them in the home … like prisoners.”

The Moldovan native said through an interpreter, “Lately, he would use narcotics to make them sleep, both Madalina and Diana,” Rodica Cojocari alleged.

“He used these narcotics in their juice. Diana and Madalina drank it, and he took Madalina out of the bedroom and gave her over to traffickers. I don’t know to whom.”

The tearful grandmother told WCNC her son-in-law “says he doesn’t know anything, but it’s not true.”

“Our Madalina is alive, and Diana was warned that ‘if you tell police anything, I will kill you.’ Chris knows who he sold our granddaughter to … but he is involved with criminals.”

Queen City News reported in July on newly unsealed court records that revealed that, in a recorded jailhouse phone call between Diana Cojocari and her mother, the two discussed “a bag of money, withdrawing cash, and a theory that Christopher Palmiter gave the girl away for money.”

That report also revealed the contents of a recorded jail call involving Palmiter, his brother and his sister-in-law. In that call, Palmiter mentioned Diana had “a lot of cash with her” and he did not know where it came from.

“In the recorded call, Palmiter said there is ‘financial stuff’ coming up, and his brother tells him not to worry about the financial stuff,” Queen City News reported.

Police in Cornelius, North Carolina, asked anyone with information on Madalina’s disappearance to call detectives at 704-892-7773.