And Then They Were Gone Episode Takeover

This is our last episode takeover and we will be back next Tuesday.
This case is about Madalina Cojocari, a missing 11 year old.

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Dark Cast Network The Light shines Brighteston our indie podcasts. Imagine the abject
fear a parent would experience after theireleven year old child has been missing for
over three weeks. No one hasheard from her, no one has seen
her. You'd be climbing the wallsright begging investigators in the public to help

(00:27):
find her. Well, that's whatusually happens, but not in the case
of Madelina Kojakari. Madelina went toschool as normal on November twenty first,
twenty twenty two, but she didn'tshow up the next day or the day
after that. Eventually, on Decembertwelfth, a school resource officer from Bailey

(00:49):
Middle School attempted a home visit andleft to truancy packet. It wouldn't be
until December fifteenth, over three weekssince her daughter was last seen, that
her mother, Diana Kojakari, admittedto school officials that she didn't know where
Madelina was. The Cornelius, NorthCarolina community has been frantically trying to find

(01:11):
the missing little girl while her parentsstood in jail. Months have gone by,
but no one is answering the question, where is Madelina Kojakari. When
a person goes missing, there's aspecial kind of pain in the not knowing.
I want to tell you the storiesof those who never came home.
Today, I want to tell youthe story of Madelina Kojakari. I'm Koda

(01:32):
Gallagher and this is and then theywere gone. Welcome back, everyone,

(01:57):
Welcome back. Thank you so muchfor joining us once again. We have
Ethan back with us this week.Hello, we are back to normal this
week. So this story is reallyupsetting and unfortunately echoes ones that we've heard
before, like those of Oakley Carlsonand Harmony Montgomery. A child is in

(02:19):
the care of her custodial parents,she disappears and they fail to report her
missing in a timely manner. Butthis one definitely takes a twist that the
others don't. So this case wassuggested to us by our listener Kelly.
She used our new case suggestion formthat I have put in our show notes,
and I decided that it would bea good one to cover, even

(02:42):
though it's so recent because after lookinginto it more because I've been following it
from the beginning, but I wasunaware of the most recent developments in it,
and so this definitely does seem likeone that needs to get out there
and more and kind of needs moreeyes and ears on it in hopes of
getting more information, because I thinkthis one is one that we will get

(03:06):
answers too. But yeah, Imean, do you remember this because this
is in Cornelius and it happens.I remember seeing the wanted posters when we
were there, Yeah, exactly,the missing posters when we were there,
yeah, exactly. Because this iswe were in Cornelius right after this happened,
So we were there like a weekand a half after she was reported
missing. So it's obviously huge newsdown there. That's what we're talking about

(03:28):
today. It'll be a bit ofa shorter episode probably again because it is
so new, but I do thinkit's important. But before we get started,
we have a few new people overon Patreon, So we want to
say thank you so much to Shanad jo d C, Andrea R in
Nicola B. We really appreciate yoursupport. Thank you all so so much.

(03:50):
If you'd like to get in onthe action and join at any level,
you'll not only get these episodes earlyand ad free, but you'll get
your own copy of the and thenthey were gone evil. But now let's
get into the story of Madelina Kojakari. Madelina Kojakari was born on April eleventh,
twenty eleven, to Diana Kojakari inMoldova. Moldova, Spain, no,

(04:15):
no, no, no. Moldovais its own country. It's Eastern
European. It's bordered by Ukraine inRomania. Oh, and you know,
I don't know unfortunately, a tonof biographical information about Madelina, including who
her biological father is. I doknow that Diana was married at one point,

(04:36):
but from what I've read, andthis is unconfirmed, it seems as
though Madelina wasn't born during that marriage. She was born from a relationship after
that marriage ended, but she wasborn in Moldova. What is clear is
that Diana was looking to change herlife after her daughter was born in a

(04:58):
variety of ways. People actually diddug up clips from a Moldovan weight loss
reality show that Diana went on.Oh wow, yeah, and so I
mean it's all in Romania and soI you know, but I've looked.
I've watched a couple of the clips, and it's like, you know,
the typical b role of like youknow, telling the story or whatever.

(05:19):
And it shows Diana and Madelina,who's like two years old at a time,
playing in a park together and youknow, doing stuff like that.
After that, Diana set her sightson America. I don't know exactly when,
but at some point she met mechanicaldesigner Christopher Palmtter online, though he

(05:42):
was twenty two years her senior.They married, and Diana and Madelina set
off for a new life in theStates. It's twenty two years yeah,
so actually almost twenty three now,so I think at the moment he's sixty
and she's thirty eight. Wow.The new family settled in Cornelius, North
Carolina, a suburb of Charlotte.Cornelius is a beautiful, well kept,

(06:09):
like upper middle class, I wouldsay, town, and it's home to
executives and retired athletes who are drawnto its proximity to Charlotte and the boating
offered by the nearby lakes, includingLake Norman and Lake Cornelius. Accounts of
Diana and Christopher's relationship differs depending onwhat side you speak to. His friends

(06:30):
paint her as a you know,manipulative and jealous woman who was jealous of
everything that Christopher does for her daughter. Diana's family, who remains in Moldova,
says that Diana and Madelina seemed happywith their new life, but they
also said that Christopher was controlling anddidn't like for Diana to speak to her
family. Her father said that shewould mostly call when Christopher wasn't around.

(06:56):
Yeah, that's not a good sign. Now, what is is that by
the end of twenty twenty two,the couple was not in a good place.
They frequently argued, and these argumentsdirectly led to what happened to Madelina.
The question is in what way?All right, now, this is

(07:28):
the timeline, and I'm going towarn you up front that it doesn't make
any sense, Okay, like completely, You're going to have a hundred questions.
So I'm going to lay it outthough, so we'll just go over
the whole thing and then we'll justdiscuss it all. So hold my questions,
welds your questions to the end,because it's it's it's ridiculous. November

(07:51):
twenty first, twenty twenty two,Madelina is seen by our school buses surveillance
camera exiting the bus at our usualstop after school. One of her neighbors,
who was also on the bus andgoes to Bailey Middle School, reports
that he walked behind her after theygot off the bus and saw her enter
her house as usual. November twentythird. Two days later, Diana and

(08:16):
Christopher get into an argument that evening. During the argument, at around ten
pm, Madelina goes to bed,Christopher decides to drive up to Michigan,
where he's originally from, to quotepick up items end quote. And just
for those of you who are notfamiliar with the geography of this, North

(08:39):
Carolina to Michigan is about eight hundredmiles away, and it's like a thirteen
hour drive if you drive straight throughwith no breaks and no traffic. So
we're not talking a quick little johntto pick up, you know, some
old yearbooks that might be at yourmom's house. November twenty fourth, So
the next day, around eleven thirtyam, Diana goes into Madelina's room to

(09:01):
check hunt her, but she's gone. Now. I read one report that
said Diana woke up feeling disoriented likeshe had just woken up from general anaesthesia,
So that could explain why she didn'tgo and check on her eleven year
old daughter until eleven thirty in themorning. But it doesn't explain any of
the other million questions you probably haveright now. November twenty six, twenty

(09:26):
twenty two, so another two days, Christopher returns home from Michigan. And
now I find that really interesting becauseagain, like we're talking a thirteen hour
drive and he's gone for He leavesafter ten pm on November twenty third and
makes it back on the twenty sixth, So that is like enough time to

(09:48):
drive like through all night, pickup whatever you wanted to pick up,
maybe take a nap, and thendrive back. I mean, it doesn't
really give you much time to doanything else. I have so many questions
though, I know. Right onthe twenty six Christopher returns home from Michigan.
Diana asks him if he knows whereMadelina is. He says he doesn't.

(10:11):
He asks her if she knows whereMadelina is. She says she doesn't.
She asks him if he's hiding her. He says he isn't. He
asks her if she's hiding her.She says she isn't. Okay, Yeah,
now we fast forward to December twelfth, so we're talking full on almost

(10:37):
three weeks later Bailey Middle Schools schoolresource officer. And again for people who
are not in the States and notliving in our dystopian nightmare world here,
you might not know what a schoolresource officer is. It's a police officer
who is stationed in our schools becauseour schools have armed police police officers in

(10:58):
them. Particular school resource officer asthey call them, and sixth grade counselor
visit Madelina's home. They knock,but no one answers the door, so
they leave a truancy packet. Sobasically, if you don't show up for
school for a long time, you'reconsidered truance, and you know that can

(11:20):
trigger legal proceedings. So this islike the first step in that. Basically,
December fourteenth, twenty twenty two,two days later, Diana calls the
counselor and requests a meeting regarding Madeline'struancy. A meeting is scheduled for the
next day with Diana and Madelina.So Diana says on the phone that she

(11:41):
is going to come into the schoolthe next day and bring her daughter with
her. Kay. So the nextday December fifteenth comes and Diana arrives at
the school without Madelina. She tellsthe counselor that she hasn't seen her daughter
since November twenty third. The counselorcalls in the school resource officer and they

(12:03):
asked Diana why she hasn't reported Madelinamissing to the police. She tells them
that she didn't want to start aquote conflict between her and her husband.
What. Yeah, she didn't wantto fight with her husband, so she

(12:24):
just said, uh, oh,well, my kid's missing, I guess.
So then they called Christopher in becausethey're like, okay, well obviously
we need to talk to this husbandslash stepfather. And he tells them like,
oh, yeah, I went toMichigan on the twenty third and I
got back to twenty six and whenI get back, she's like, oh,
I don't know where Madelina is.And this is what's crazy. I

(12:46):
mean all of it, but thisis what's even crazier. He also tells
them that despite the fact that heand Madelina both live in the same house,
like you know, the marriage,like they weren't separated, you know,
nothing like that. Despite this,he says that he hadn't seen Madelina

(13:07):
for a week prior to leaving forMichigan. He says he hasn't seen her
since like the fifteenth or the sixteenthof November, but we know she's there,
Like, yeah, we have videoproofs from the twenty first, So
like why even say that, Likethat just makes everything look more suspicious,

(13:28):
Yeah, because we know she wasfine on the twenty first, But he's
saying he didn't see her for likefive days prior to that, and he
was in the house because they gotinto the argument in the house on the
twenty third. So am I allowedto ask questions? Yet almost so.
At this point, Madelina is reportedmissing to Cornelia's police. Investigators immediately secure

(13:50):
a search warrant for the home.Twenty five items are seized, but all
except for three iPhones are redacted.Over the past couple of months, there's
been a lot of back and forthwith the documents in this case. The
court ruled back in December. Ibelieve that that they were going to seal

(14:11):
all of the warrants and the inventoryand everything because they were afraid that releasing
that publicly would interfere with Diana andChristopher receiving a fair trial because this case
has been so high profile locally.But then in January there was a challenge
to that in court, and sothe documents have been released, but with

(14:33):
certain information redacted. So we havethe search warrants, but like I said,
in terms of the inventorial list ofwhat received seized, we can see
that it's numbered one through twenty five, but we don't know what it is
exactly. Everything except for three iPhonesis redacted. December sixteenth, twenty twenty

(14:54):
two, Cornelius Police ask the FBIto assist in the case. They also
acquire a warrant for everybody's phone records. Now, Madelina did not have a
phone herself. It seems as thoughChristopher maybe had two phones, Diana had
one, or maybe Diana had twophones, but there are three phones between
the adults. I also do wantto say that like Cornelius police, as

(15:18):
soon as they were aware of this, really took it seriously and really got
on the ball. December seventeenth,twenty twenty two, both Diana and Christopher
are arrested and charged with failure toreport the disappearance of a child to law
enforcement. December twenty first, twentytwenty two, a search warrant is executed

(15:39):
at the family's home. A fewmore items are seized. Actually, I'm
going to take a pause here andlet's just because the rest of the timeline
kind of deals more with like theinvestigation and what's going on now, So
let's take a break and just talkabout like, what on earth is a
story that they're giving. Yeah,can I ask questions? Yes, now
you can. Okay, So wehave the video evidence of her going into

(16:03):
our house. And then you said, well, now, so the video
revience is only her getting off thebus. And so that was one of
the questions was did she actually makeit home that day? But we have
a witness that says that she did, yes, one of the neighbors.
Okay, So then you said twodays later is when they got into an
argument. Correct, So where areyou getting that information from? From Diana?

(16:26):
So that's the story that she toldthe counselor and the school resource officer.
But what I find interesting and confusing, you know, Number one is
that the twenty first, the daythat she was last seen, that Madelina
was last seen is a Monday.Okay, the question is it Tuesday?

(16:48):
She should have been at school,right, and the twenty third, the
Wednesday was also a school day,and then school was closed for Thanksgiving Thursday
and Friday and maybe Monday. I'mnot sure about Monday, but at the
very least through saying Friday. Soshe meaning Madelina, should have been in
school the twenty second and the twentythird as well, and was not so

(17:15):
much to unpack here. And apparently, and this is what I haven't seen
confirmed, because like the story ofthe fight on the twenty third and all
of that stuff, Like I said, that is the story that she gave
to the school officials, and weare getting that information from the probable Cause
f davit for their arrest and forthe search warrant, So we're getting that

(17:42):
directly from the police. What we'renot getting is like did they ask the
question of like what about the twentyseconds? Like where was she? Why
didn't she go to school on thetwenty second? So like that's not a
part of it, right, I'msure that would be in the transcripts of
the interview, but right like there, they can't release that to the public

(18:03):
at this point. So, yes, we only have kind of the the
basics of whatever she may have toldthem and you know, whatever questions may
have been asked, but like that'sread five number one. And then,
like I said, so, what'snot in the probably cause affidavit? And
that's why I hesitate to, like, you know, say that this is
confirmed, because it's not. Isthat apparently she originally said that the fight

(18:26):
was on the twenty second, butthat when Christopher came, he said it
was the twenty third, and soshe was like, oh, yeah,
I was the twenty third, likeshe changed her story to match his.
But that again is not laid outspecifically in the affidavit, So I can't
swear to that. Did she sayanything about what the fight was about?
Not? That's been published now.And do we have any knowledge that Madelina

(18:53):
was a point of contention in theirrelationship before this? Not at all,
and her Diana's family doesn't say thatspecifically, Like I said, Christopher's friends
or whatever say that you know,he doated on her, So who knows,
But that wasn't like a known factprior to this, you know.

(19:15):
Yeah, I mean the reason whyI'm asking that is because it seems to
me, given the timeline and howweird it is, that maybe something happened
to Madelina, and then they cameup with a plan to dispose of her
body or whatever, then involved himdriving up to Michigan, and they came

(19:38):
up with this stupid alibi with likethem getting into a fight and him going
to pick things up from Michigan.Yeah, but like even that doesn't make
sense, right because it's like,none of this even if that's the case,
the fact that they didn't report itto anybody makes it look a billion

(19:59):
time yea worse. You know,it's so strange to me because other than
saying, yeah, we got intoa fight and you know, he went
to Michigan, like, it didn'treally seem like they were on the same
page with what had happened. Imean, he's claiming he hadn't seen Madelina
for a week prior to that,even though they were in the same house
together. Like how does that evenwork? I mean, you know,

(20:22):
like it doesn't seem to me asthough they were like working together on this.
Yeah, it's also in any way, you know. Yeah, it's
also interesting to note that she mentionedthat she felt like she had been drugged.
Yes, So is that like kindof her way of sliding in a

(20:45):
possible way to get out of thesituation, right, Like, maybe she's
implying that he drugged her and thendid something to Madelina and she was too
scared to report her missing, andthat's why she asked him if he had
her or if he was hiding her, you know. Like that Again,

(21:07):
that makes sense to me, LikeI could get behind that if it weren't
for the fact that after he gotback on the twenty sixth, neither one
of them said anything to anybody,right, you know, maybe if he's
abusive. Yeah, you know,she was in fear of reporting her daughter

(21:29):
missing because of what retribution might come, right, I don't know, but
yeah, I mean none of thismakes sense, no, and yes,
And that's of course the theory that'sbeen bandied about a lot, right,
is that she was in fear ofhim and that's why she didn't report anything.

(21:51):
But we'll talk about that more lateras we kind of get more into
the timeline from between December and now. I can believe to an extent,
basically it makes less sense every singleday that passes. But so we'll get
back to that. But all right, so are we ready to continue with
the timeline. Yeah, I thinkso okay, so where we left off.

(22:14):
Diana and Christopher were arrested on theseventeenth. The second search warrant is
executed at the family's home on Decembertwenty first, and a few more items
were seized. So reporters were thereand they saw a detective or you know
whoever bring out basically like a boxfull of stuff and the inventory, which

(22:36):
is completely redacted on that one,is only three or four items, I
believe. On December twenty seven,twenty twenty two, Cornelius Police release a
statement. Good afternoon. I'm CaptainJennifer Thompson of the Corneus Police Department.
First on behalf of our command staff, our town manager and elected officials.

(22:56):
I want to say thank you toall the agencies who are assisting us in
our search for Madelina. Over thepast twelve days, the Corneais Police Department
has led a massive investigation to findeleven year old Madelina Cochakari. One of
the challenges in this case simply put, we were not notified she was gone.
A delay of three weeks. Schoolofficials had repeatedly tried to contact Madelina's

(23:18):
parents. Finally, on December fifteenth, Madelina's mother walked into school and said
her daughter was missing. We immediatelycalled in partners from across the state and
from the FBI. Since that Thursday, nearly two weeks ago, hundreds of
agents, detectives, analysts, andother employees searched. In cooperation with the
District Attorney's office, we arrested Madelina'smother, Dina co Chakari, and her

(23:40):
stepfather, Christopher Pometer. Thankfully,the state of North Carolina has a law
that makes it illegal if someone failsto report a missing child to law enforcement.
Here are some of the specifics investigatorshave developed and followed nearly two hundred
and fifty leads, spinning across statelines and across the globe. We had
interviewed hundreds of people in North Carolinaand other states, and again across the

(24:03):
globe. We went door to doorto at least two hundred and forty five
homes, focusing on the Victoria Baycommunity where Madelina lives. We canvas businesses
and scoured through ours of surveillance videofrom all over the area. We also
led land and water searches around LakeCornellis as a precautionary measure, investigators obtained

(24:26):
multiple search warrant for Madelina's home tomake sure we legally gathered each and every
possible piece of evidence to find Madelina. We know everyone has a lot of
questions. We also have questions thatare doing everything we can with proper legal
authority to get those answers. Weknow you understand us sharing investigative details could
harm our efforts in finding Madelina.The Corneas Police Department is so grateful for

(24:48):
the tremendous outpouring of support. Thisis a serious case of a child whose
parents clearly are not telling us everythingthey know. Please call us if you
have eyewitness information. Thank you foryour time and efforts to help us find
Madeleina. So I wanted to playthat just to reiterate kind of what had
been done in the investigation and showthat again because we talk a lot of

(25:12):
shit about cops. Uh, rightfully, So I have no regrets, but
um, you know, Cornelius policelike really, like I said, seems
to be on the ball here.Yeah, for sure. I mean that
that definitely shows that you know,they're working this case as hard as they
can. But that statement also reallydoesn't say anything right other than that.

(25:34):
Yeah, and but you know itdoes talk about you know, the interviews
that they've done, the doors thatthey knocked on, you know the fact
that they have searched at that point, Lake Cornelius. I believe that they
have also since then searched Lake Normanas Wellman's huge, it's huge, It's
so big. So, I mean, I don't know how extensive that search
was, obviously because it is solarge. But you know, they're not

(25:59):
just throwing their hands up. They'redoing what they can. And I guess
at this point the parents aren't talking. No, I mean, as far
as we know. So on Decembertwenty eighth, twenty two, a two
hundred thousand dollars bond is set forboth Diana and Christopher and they're required to
surrender their passports. January sixth,twenty twenty three, a new lead comes

(26:22):
through that moves the investigation to MadisonCounty, about three hours away from Cornelius.
The tip says that during the threeweek gap between when Madelina was last
seen and when she was reported missing, Diana drove her Green Prius to Madison
County near a lonesome mountain. Apparently, she stopped in a pull off area

(26:42):
and a random deputy who was patrollingor whatever stopped and just checked on her
to see if she was okay.Now, I don't know if there was
like an official record of this andthat's how they figured out, or if
the deputy just kind of put twoand two together at some points like oh
shit, like yeah, I sawthat lady. But either way, he

(27:03):
says that Madelina was not in thecar with her. She was alone.
And again, they haven't given usthe exact date of this, just that
it was in that three week unaccountedfour period. Yeah, so it begs
the question, what was she doingout there exactly like I said, three
hours away from home, you know, on a mountain at a pull off.

(27:26):
Yeah. Cornelius police and the StateBeer of Investigation brought canines out to
search that area. Police are currentlyasking anyone who had seen Diana Madelina or
the car between November twenty second andDecember fifteenth to contact them. February fourteenth,
investigators and a canine officer returned tothe home. It is later revealed

(27:49):
that this visit and the canine officerwere there because of potential drug trafficking drug
track I know, yeah, We'llget to that in a second. Aren't
they out of the house? Yeah, nope, big twist here, all
right, so get ready. Inearly March, it is revealed that prior

(28:11):
to Madelina's disappearance, Diana had extensivecontact with a distant relative named Octavian Sinanew.
She allegedly asked him for help smugglingher and Madelina away from their home
because of her quote bad relationship withChristopher. In addition to Octavian, Diana

(28:34):
also had contact with several other peopleinvolved in a drug trafficking investigation. According
to police, quote, persons involvedwith narcotics activity are also associated with human
smuggling end quote. And that iswhy they returned to the house with the
K nine officer in February. Theybelieved that they were going to uncover drugs

(28:57):
and money not previously found. Okay, yeah, like full on season of
the Wire over here, right,Because from what it sounds like, these
like unnamed other people, maybe evenOctavian as well, were already under investigation

(29:18):
for drug trafficking, and I thinkthat their phones were being monitored. And
when they cross referenced Diana's phone records, these two seemingly completely separate cases converged.
This is so weird, I know. So It's more is that police

(29:41):
believe that Diana may herself be involvedin drug trafficking. So when that K
nine officer went to search her Prius, they alerted to the driver's side door
the drug dog. Yeah. Policesay that they the car may hold evidence
of quote, narcotics, drug paraphernaliaand or evidence of trafficking end quote.

(30:07):
So like, what the fuck?So this is now an like an international
drug smuggling ring. Yeah, andthat maybe she used these drug smugglers to
smuggle her daughter somewhere, but thenwhy not her also, right? And
so like all right, So thisis how I have two major problems with
this. One. I read andthis is unconfirmed that among the items recovered

(30:32):
either from the prius or the houseI believe the prius though, was were
Madelina's passports. So I don't knowif that's true or not, but that
does make it, you know,slightly more difficult to smuggle her out of
the country. Sure. The otherissue that I have with that, with
all of this, is that bothDiana and Christopher have been sitting in jail

(30:57):
since December. I mean, we'retalking a full four months at this point,
and like they're not saying anything,right, So, I mean,
if it's truly like Diana smuggled Madelinato make her safe, why wouldn't she

(31:18):
say that at this point instead ofsitting for jail and likely eventually being charged
with her daughter's murder. I mean, if she's involved in drug smuggling,
maybe maybe she's more scared of thosepeople. Yes, yeah, that would
be my guess. So then okay, I mean I can buy that,

(31:40):
certainly. I'm like Eastern European drugcartels, sure, like sounds pretty scary.
But what about Christopher if he ifthis is Diana's thing and he doesn't
have anything to do with and shewas like trying to do this behind his
back, Like why isn't he sayinganything to get himself out of jail at
this point? Maybe for the samereason. Maybe he was involved with the

(32:01):
drug smuggling and didn't know about Madelinabeing smuggled out of the country until yeah,
you know, she was already gone. I don't know, And then
at this point, if he givesthem up, it's the same thing for
him retribution. Yeah. This allsounds like a movie though, right,

(32:24):
I mean as sad as it is. Like I said at the beginning,
this case sounded like the ones thatwe've heard before, right, Harmony and
Montgomery, you know, and wehaven't covered that case on this show,
but she was in and out offoster care. She was with her biological

(32:45):
father when she disappeared. He didn'treport her missing. He has now been
arrested for her murder, despite thefact that Harmony's body has yet to be
found. Now, you know,I hate to say it, but like
that is what this sounded like tome. Yes case right and Oakley Carlson,

(33:05):
which we did cover, same kindof thing. She has not been
found. Her parents have yet tobe charged with her murder as well,
but it seems as though that's justa matter of time. Yeah, But
with this this whole like drug traffickingangle, I don't, I honestly don't
know what to think anymore. That'sjust that's not something that we normally see

(33:30):
in cases like this. And like, what I still don't understand is like,
regardless of what happened, whether itwas like drug trafficking, whether it
was you know, human trafficking,whether it was murder, or whether it
was an accident, like any anypossibility. What I don't understand is Madelina

(33:51):
did not go to school from whatwe understand, on the twenty first or
I'm sorry, the twenty second,right, So why didn't they just say
that all this the fight, thewhatever happened on the twenty first, like
or the twenty second, efent likethe fact that she was last seen in
the afternoon of the twenty first,and then this whole fight, you know,
and she went to bed at teno'clock when they were fighting. Story,

(34:15):
it doesn't make any sense. Imean, that could have just been
a mistake on the dates of thestory that they told. Yeah, or
and also I mean it should benoticed, it should be noted that the
video evidence of her getting off thebus didn't come until, you know,
a week or two after they gavethat story, and they gave those dates,

(34:37):
so at the time when they weretelling the story, they didn't know
there's a video evidence of her beingon the bus on the twenty first,
and not on the twenty second,and not on the twenty third. But
I mean, there would still beschool records of her either being there or
not being there, right, Butmaybe they didn't exactly remember, Yeah,
I guess I don't know, man, Like I'm bad with dates, but
like, damn, I mean,if I'm trying to cover up either some

(35:00):
crazy drug trafficking ring or like amurder, I feel like I would look
at a fucking calendar before I starttalking to belize. I don't know.
Well, I mean, clearly thesepeople are not, you know, the
smartest. Yeah, it's just soweird because especially like like Christopher just seems
like a normal dude, Like he'sa mechanical designer, like you know,

(35:22):
he just like had a bee bobin normal life, Like he has no
criminal record. It doesn't seem likehe's ever been involved in anything shady.
And then all of a sudden whatever, I don't even know what's happening here,
but it's not good. There's atwelve year old girl missing and he's
in the middle of it one wayor another, I don't know. But

(35:45):
yeah, so it still gets weirderthough, when I'm talking about all of
this coming out, this whole likedrug trafficking and goal whatever. This all
came out in March or twenty twentythree, like aka a month ago,
oh yeah, yeah, and justabout a week ago. So like a
week before we are sitting here recordingthis, Diana Kojakari was slapped with new

(36:08):
charges and this is wild to me. Belany possession of a controlled substance wall
in jail. Oh, she haddrugs on her, yes, but she's
been in jail since December. Wellobviously she didn't, she didn't smuggle them
into the prison. But they founddrugs in her cell, well on her

(36:31):
person, in her shirt pocket.So on March seventeenth, they you know,
I don't know if they suspected somethingthat or if it was just a
normal search. I don't know howthat works. But regardless, March seventeenth,
they apparently patted her down and founda baggy of white powder in her
shirt pockets. So they tested itand found that it was a cocaine and

(36:57):
fentinel based product. Mm. Nice. She says she found it by the
showers. Those aren't my pants.That's a great defense. Love it.
Yeah, I don't know what tothink about that. I mean, with
all this drug trafficking stuff, andthen she has like cocaine and fentanel in
March, three months after she goesto jail. Yeah, maybe she wasn't

(37:22):
as clean and normal quote unquote aswe thought. So, I mean,
this case is just ten times weirderthan I thought. You know, I
knew it was weird when we firstheard about it, because when we first
heard about it in December, youknow, we knew that she had already
been missing for three weeks and herparents hadn't reported her missing, so we

(37:45):
already knew something bad was going on. But like all of this with the
drug trafficking and the Eastern Europeans,and like, how did we come about
having finding out this story of metalpotentially being trafficked out of the country.
So I think that came from thesefrom this drug investigation, from like wire

(38:07):
taps, okay, and or ifit wasn't wire taps. After they went
through Diana's phone records, they foundOctavian and it sounds like they interviewed him
and he said, oh, yeah, she was trying to get me to
like smuggle her and Madeline out ofthe country. So he said that.
From what I understand, it waseither he said that to police or they

(38:30):
had it on tape one of thetwo or both, Because I'm I'm curious
as to whether maybe potentially this EasternEuropean drug cartel took took Madelina. Yeah,
and that's why they didn't report hermissing and took her for whatever reason
related to the drug smuggling, youknow, holding her hostage or whatever,

(38:54):
so that these two would do whateverthey needed to do or whatever. Right,
But you know, you gotta ifthat's the case, Like, obviously
Diana and Christoph aren't doing anything becausethey've been sitting in jail for four months.
Well that probably wasn't the original Wellno, I know, but I
mean my point is is that,like, so what are they going to

(39:15):
do now? I don't know what'sthe next move? You know, I
don't know. I didn't write thisterrible movie. I know this is a
plot to a bad movie. Yeah, but within it is this poor little
girl who was just going to schooland living her life and eating ice cream

(39:37):
and like doing all the things thata kid her age does. And whatever
happened to her, I mean,she got swept into something that was not
her fault and suffering the consequences ofyou know, the actions of the adults
around her who were supposed to beprotecting her. So what happened to Madelina?

(40:01):
Like, is she still out therealive? Somewhere. Could she be
safe and hidden in Moldova or evenstill here in the States somewhere? Did
her mother kill her, did herstepfather or they both involved somehow. Unfortunately,
this case leaves us with way morequestions than it does answers. In

(40:23):
April eleventh of twenty twenty three,Cornelius Police Department held an event to commemorate
Madelina's twelfth birthday. They have notgiven up on searching for the little girl.
One way or another, it seemsas though her mother and or stepfather
caused her disappearance, and given thatthey remain in custody, I mean,

(40:44):
I do feel confident that this caseisn't going to remain unsolved. I think
something's going to break, you know, Yeah, I mean, one way
or another. Obviously they're onto somethingbigger than what they originally thought. It
was the fact that they have evidenceof these things, and evidence enough to

(41:07):
release it to the public, rightthat shows you that they're on to something.
So I would agree, I thinkthat we're going to get answers to
this case, But who knows whatthe fuck the answers are going to be.
Well, yeah, and there's certainlymore information to be found, right,
And that's why it's really important foranybody who saw Diana, who saw

(41:31):
Christopher, you know, anywhere betweenNorth Carolina and Michigan in that three week
period from like they'll say the twentythird, I'll say the twenty first and
December fifteenth, when Madelina's reported missing. I mean, anybody who encountered them,
whether it was at the grocery store, a parking lot, you know,

(41:53):
whatever, needs to come forward becausetheir movements and I'm sure that they're
are there is a lot more informationabout their movement movements based on their cell
phone data, sell phone data andpotentially easy pass records or exactly road records
of some sort, like right,all of that. Yeah, I mean

(42:15):
the police, I'm sure have verifiedthat, given that he told that story
that he went to Michigan. Yeah. Yeah, so yeah, I'm sure
that there is. But still,I mean, we still need any person
who can, you know, giveany other insight to come forward. So
that's the big reason why I wantedto cover this because I feel like,

(42:35):
even though it's obviously a huge storyin the Cornelius area in you know,
North Carolina in general, I don'tthink it's gotten a huge reach beyond that.
So I just wanted to try toget it out there a little bit
more because Madelinia could still be aliveout there, like we Honestly, I
feel like anything's possible at this point. Take a look at our social media,

(43:00):
at our website, We're going topost the you know, the picture
of the car, the prius.You know. If Diana like all that
information, we'll post pictures of Madelinaof course, so that anybody you know
who may have seen something can contactthe proper authorities. There are still people
out there who may have seen somethingor who knows something, and we need

(43:22):
them to speak up because we needto find Madelina. Madelina Kojakari has been

(43:47):
missing from Cornelius, North Carolina,since around November twenty first, twenty twenty
two. She's a white female withbrown hair, wearing a extimately ninety pounds.
She was last seen wearing jeans,pink and purple and white Adida's shoes
and a white T shirt and jacket. Anyone with information about Madelina is asked

(44:10):
to call the Cornelius Police Department atseven O four eight nine two seven seven
seven three, or are the FBIat one eight hundred call FBI. You
can see all the sources for thisepisode, along with photos and videos at
our website. And Then They WereGone dot com and be sure to follow
us on social and Then They WereGone Pod on Facebook and at ATTWG pod

(44:32):
on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.If you like what we're doing, please
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new listeners find us, and themore people that listen, the more chances
we have of bringing someone home.And we'll see you here next week for
a brand new episode. See younext week. And Then They Were Gone
as hosted by Kona Gallagher and DeethanFlick. All research, writing and editing

(44:55):
is done by Kona Gallagher. Thememusic is The Stork by Katza. Additional
music is provided by Kai Engel.And Then They Were Gone is a Little
Monster production. Hey, you coulddo it.