The stepfather of missing Cornelius girl Madalina Cojocari testified at his trial Tuesday, revealing new details about his loveless marriage to what he described as an increasingly unstable Diana Cojocari.
Christopher Palmiter, 61, was charged along with Cojocari with failing to report her daughter Madalina missing in December 2022. Cojocari, who had already served 17 months in prison — the maximum sentence for the same charge — pleaded guilty last week.
Madalina was last seen on Nov. 23, 2022, police say, but the couple did not report her missing until Dec. 15, 2022, when Bailey Middle School administrators called them to report Madalina’s extended absence after the Thanksgiving holiday to investigate.
She was 11 at the time. Now the 13-year-old is still missing, and neither Palmiter nor Cojocari know where she might be, they told police.
The mother of missing Madalina Cojocari admits she did not report her daughter’s disappearance
In Mecklenburg County Superior Court Tuesday, Palmiter’s court-appointed attorney, Brandon R. Roseman, called him to the witness stand.
“This is your chance to tell your story,” he told Palmiter as he faced the jury – eleven men and one woman, plus two female alternate jurors.
In his hour-long testimony, which resumes Wednesday morning, Palmiter talked about his unique family life. He and Cojocari, he said, reaching for a tissue, had never been physically intimate in the eight years of their marriage. They only kissed on special occasions – birthdays, holidays, after exchanging presents – he said.
They slept in the same bed for only two years before Cojocari moved into Madalina’s room. When she finally got to bed, she was sleeping on a trundle bed that was pulled out from under Madalina’s mattress.
But before her head hit a pillow, she spent hours “screaming at the top of her lungs” while reciting “chants, manifestations and prayers” she learned from Elizabeth Clare Prophet, a spiritual leader who died in 2009. The faster and louder she sang, the more “points” she would get, he said. She also taught Madalina the chants, he said.
Prophet, a controversial leader of the cult-like Church Universal and Triumphant, has more than 75 books of teachings and several videos on YouTube. At its peak, the church, originally The Summit Lighthouse, had 50,000 members.
The Prophet claimed to receive ‘dictations’ from ascended masters such as Jesus, Buddha and Saint Germain while in an elevated state of consciousness.
Cojocari occasionally claimed the same thing, Palmiter testified. He said he interpreted it as “speaking to angels,” although she claimed she was also “fighting demons.”
On one occasion, Cojocari sat both Palmiter and Madalina on a kitchen chair and “cut the air” around them with a knife. She cut the strings that demons can use to control people, she told Palmiter.
Cojocari also became fascinated with burning things, Palmiter said. The fire pit the family once used for s’mores slowly became Cojocari’s place to burn diaries, litter boxes and “things that aren’t even flammable,” like metal, he said.
On November 30, 2022, seven days after Madalina was last seen, a neighbor reported that her mother set fire to a couch in the backyard.
Palmiter, one of 11 children in his Michigan family, said Cojocari’s spirituality has progressed significantly since he met her in 2008. From 2020 to 2022, it increased dramatically.
He said he met Cojocari on an online dating or marriage site called “GlobalLadies.” Then Cojocari, 39, lied about her age, Palmiter said. She said she was six years older than she was.
After communicating via email, they first met in Moldova, the Eastern European country where Cojocari is from, in 2008. After that, they lost contact.
A year or two later, Cojocari told Palmiter that she had a child – Madalina – with a local man, but that she was still interested in their connection if he was.
He later returned to Moldova, this time with a promise, he said in court. Since their January 2016 wedding, which allowed Cojocari to obtain a U.S. visa, they have had a “companionship” rather than a traditional wedding. It is Palmiter’s only marriage.
Cojocari, he said, was “100% in charge of Madalina’s education and development.” But a few years before Madalina’s disappearance, Cojocari often became too engrossed in her prayers and chants.
In those cases, Madalina would ask Palmiter to play with her, he said. They played horse video games, chased their cats and ran hide and seek.
“I would never turn her down,” he said, bursting into tears again as he reached for a second tissue.
Palmiter’s trial for failing to report Madalina missing will continue this week, with Cojocari expected to take the witness stand.
The trial was expected to last two weeks, Supreme Court Justice Matthew Osmond said.
