The grandmother said that she believes her granddaughter was sold to traffickers for $5m and may have been forced to undergo plastic surgery to change her physical appearance,
Madalina Cojocari is seen exiting a school bus in the last confirmed sighting of the child on Nov. 21, 2022.
The search for Madalina continues a year later, and this video should help those efforts after being shared by the FBI.
It is a video that the Conelius Police Department previously shared in part, but this is the first time it is appearing on the FBI website and can be seen in full.
A carefree Madalina is seen walking off the school bus on the Monday before Thanksgiving in the video.
Her mother, Diana Cojocari, later told police she last saw her daughter on Nov. 24, but did not report the girl missing until Dec. 15. That delay resulted in both her and Madalina's stepfather, Christopher Palmiter, being charged with failure to report a missing child.
Diana remains held behind bars pending trial, but Palmiter posted bail in August. In the wake of his release, explosive new claims came out after Madalina's grandmother spoke with the press.
"My granddaughter is alive, but she's been kidnapped," Rodica Cojocari told WCNC outside court this past August, when Diana and Palmiter appeared before a judge after being charged with failing to report Madalina's disappearance for over three weeks.
Rodica also claimed that Palmiter masterminded the sale of his stepdaughter in her interview with WCNC.
"Chris Palmiter is the instrument," Rodica said. "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."
Rodica also alleged in her interview that Palmiter drugged Madalina and her mother before selling the girl for $5 million.
"Lately, he would use narcotics to make them sleep, both Madalina and Diana," Rodica told WCNC. "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."
Both Diana and Palmiter entered pleas of not guilty in court last week and continue to claim they have no idea where Madalina is or what happened to her after she went missing from the family's North Carolina home back in November.
Rodica told WCNC that she does not think this is true.
"He says he doesn't know anything, but it's not true," said Rodica. "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."
Rodica also told WCNC that she believes her granddaughter may have undergone plastic surgery to change her physical appearance, thus making it harder for law enforcement to find the girl.
Palmiter and his lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
The search for Madalina has spanned across all of North Carolina.
A month after her disappearance, efforts moved from Madalina's home to Madison County, a densely forested but sparsely populated area deep in the Appalachian Mountains.
Police moved search efforts to this remote and rugged section of western North Carolina after reports of Diana's car being sighted in the area, and began the process of reaching out to the community to ask if any residents had seen Madalina, her mother, Diana, or Diana's car at the time of the sighting.
Inside Edition Digital learned that multiple residents spoke with investigators and said they spotted Diana's car in the days after Madalina's disappearance.
A photo of Madalina posing at the summit of Mount Mitchell in neighboring Yancey County confirmed that she had at least visited that area of the state before she went missing, which is located three hours from her home in the town of Cornelius.
That search proved fruitless, with investigators failing to find Madalina despite multiple tips regarding sighting of her mother in the area after her disappearance.
The Cornelius Police Department refuses to give up the search however, and is hosting a group prayer gathering on the anniversary of Madalina's disappearance.
