CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA: Cornelius Police Chief David Baucom - stunned by the “magnitude” of the missing case of the preteen Madalina Cojocari for more than a year - has vowed to find her.

Madalina, then 11 years old, was last seen getting off of her school bus in her hometown in Cornelius on November 21, 2022.

However, her missing report wasn’t filed by her mother Diana Cojocari and stepfather Christopher Palmiter until December 15, 2022.

The couple, however, told the police that they saw their daughter last on the evening of November 23, 2022.

‘But nothing along the lines of this case’

Police Chief Baucom talked about the eeriness of the case to Fox News and said, “It's hard to believe that a year has already passed since she was last seen getting off the school bus," before adding, "And … in just a few short weeks is the anniversary of when our investigation actually began."

Slamming the parents’ week-long delay in filing the missing report, Baucom said in a town meeting on Tuesday, “It slowed [the investigation] down initially.”

Baucom added in the meeting which he called to remember Madalina, "We spent a lot of time trying to go back through the records we had available early on and (tried to) find her that way. And then … we had to, of course, obtain search warrants and start looking at other records, trying to find other avenues to locate her."

The police followed the leads which took them from Charlotte to the western part of North Carolina in search of the girl. Baucom also claimed that he had never seen a missing case "of this magnitude."

He said, "We may have someone who's missing for two hours or four hours or maybe a day or so. But, normally, that's because they just forgot to tell a family member they were going somewhere, or their cellphone was dead or something like that.”

Stressing on the gravity of the case, he exclaimed, “But nothing along the lines of this case.”

The search for Madalina is still continuing.

How did Madalina Cojocari disappear?

While Madalina was last seen on November 21, 2022, when she was getting down from her school bus, her mother claimed she saw her daughter last on November 23.

The missing report, nevertheless, was filed on December 15.

Diana told the school officials and the Cornelius Police that she last saw her daughter on November 23, when Madalina went to her bedroom at night, at around 10 pm.

She and her husband - Madalina's stepfather Christopher Palmiter were engaged in an argument then.

Palmiter went to his relative's home in Michigan on November 24 to retrieve "some items" following the argument.

On November 24, Diana found her daughter was missing as she went to her room at around 11.30 am.

As Palmiter returned on November 26, Diana asked him about Madalina's whereabouts. Apparently, Palmiter asked Madalina's mother the same question.

The police arrested and charged both Diana and Palmiter for their failure to report a missing child to law enforcement after Madalina's disappearance. While Palmiter has been released in August, Diana is still in custody.