MISSING MADALINA, 11, PHOTOS GONE, HIDDEN BAG OF CASH, PRIESTS PAID THOUSANDS

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline

True Crime, News

3.9 • 7.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Madalina Cojocari was last seen just days before Thanksgiving, getting off her school bus at home in Cornelius. A bus camera captured her exit. In the released footage, the sixth grader walks down the aisle and steps off the bus at 4:59 p.m. That was the last day Madalina attended school.

Two weeks after classes resumed and Madalina didn’t return, staff at Bailey Middle School contacted her mother, Diana, to ask about her. On December 15, Diana Cojocari went to the school and told a resource officer that Madalina was missing.

Joining Nancy Grace today

Derek Smith - Criminal Defense Attorney
Dr. Heidi Green - Clinical Psychologist, Trauma specialist, Author: ‘The Path to Self-Love and World Domination; IG: @drheidigreen
Deputy Chief Jennifer Thompson - Cornelius Police Department; Instagram: @corneliuspolice
Joseph Scott Morgan - Professor of Forensics: Jacksonville State University, and Author, "Blood Beneath My Feet", Host: "Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan;" X@JoScottForensic
Elaine Aradillas - Investigative Reporter, Former Reporter for People Magazine; X: @elaineja, Instagram: @the_elaine

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season 1.
0:09.1	Every time I hear about my dad is, oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil.
0:13.7	I was becoming the bridge between Jeremy Scott and the son he'd never known.
0:18.5	At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer.
0:21.2	Listen to new episodes of Bone Valley Season 2, starting April 9th on the I Heart Radio
0:26.0	app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:31.2	Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
0:37.3	A beautiful little 11-year-old girl, Madalina. Her photos are all gone. Then there's the
0:46.2	hidden bag of cash. And why is a priest in another country pay thousands and thousands of dollars. What does that have to do
0:57.3	with this 11-year-old girl? Where is Madalina? I'm Nancy Grace. This is crime stories. Thank you for
1:05.1	being with us. Investigators have developed and followed nearly 250 leads spanning across state lines and across the globe.
1:13.6	We have interviewed hundreds of people in North Carolina and other states and again across the globe.
1:19.2	We went door to door to at least 245 homes focusing on the Victoria Bay community where Madalina lives.
1:26.4	We canvassed businesses and scoured through hours
1:29.1	of surveillance video from all over the area. We also led land and water searches around Lake
1:36.0	Cornelius. You are hearing Deputy Chief Jennifer Thompson joining us, Deputy Chief of Cornelius
1:41.6	Police Department. Been with L.E. over 20 years, believe it or not.
1:47.7	Let's go straight out to the Deputy Chief. Chief, you were just describing an exhaustive search so
1:54.2	far for this 11-year-old little girl, Madalina. When I hear what all you and your people, men and women dedicated, have done,
2:06.6	it's got to get exhaustive, exhausting.
2:09.1	And I was looking at door to door to at least 245 homes.
2:24.0	Just before I get into her disappearance and the missing photos and the bag of cash, thousands of dollars of cash and then the priest in another country getting paid thousands
	...

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