Madalina Cojocari Update: Parents Arrested as Police Search Lake for Child

The Cornelius Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are broadening their search for a missing 11-year-old girl to include the depths of Lake Cornelius, one of several bodies of water near the girl's North Carolina home.

Madalina Cojocari has been missing since November 23, but a missing person's report wasn't filed until last Thursday—22 days after she was last seen at home. A search for the Bailey Middle School sixth-grader began last Thursday, when a school resource officer was notified that she was missing. Police immediately requested assistance from the FBI.

Cojocari's stepfather, Christopher Palmiter, and her mother, Diana Cojocari, were arrested on Saturday for allegedly not reporting her disappearance.

A tweet from the Charlotte FBI field office said searching the lake is part of the "normal investigative process." According to the tweet, police and the FBI are "developing [and] following many leads....There's nothing we won't do to #FindMadalina."

Civilians following the case expressed concern that the lake is being included in the search.

"Never a good sign when they start searching a lake," one person tweeted.

The FBI described Cojocari as 4-foot-10 and 90 pounds. She has brown eyes and brown hair and was last seen wearing jeans, a white T-shirt with a jacket and pink, purple and white Adidas shoes.

Law enforcement officials are requesting the public's help in locating the girl. The FBI shared several pictures of her and included that she loves horses and ice cream.

"We need to make certain we speak to every person who may have info to help us create an exact timeline of when she was last seen," the FBI Charlotte field office tweeted.

On Monday, a judge raised Palmiter's bail to $200,000. A report by WCNC in Charlotte said that neither Palmiter nor Diana Cojocari gave investigators a reason they waited so long to report the girl as missing or any idea about where she might be. Diana Cojocari is expected to appear in court on Tuesday.

Neighbors told WCNC that the family was quiet and tended to keep to themselves.

Anyone with information about Madalina Cojocari is urged to call 704-892-7773.

Newsweek, which requested criminal and court records for Palmiter and Diana Cojocari from the North Carolina Department of Administration, reached out to the FBI for comment.