CORNELIUS, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Queen City News has obtained a copy of a judge’s order to seal the search warrants in the Madalina Cojocari case.

The 11-year-old girl from Cornelius is still missing after her mother and stepfather say they last saw her on Nov. 23. Diana Cojocari and Christopher Palmiter are still sitting in Mecklenburg County Detention Center for failing to report her missing until more than three weeks later.

The ruling says Cornelius Police and the State Bureau of Investigation obtained search warrants for Cojocari and Palmiter’s T-Mobile call records, Palmiter’s mobile device, and the family’s home on Victoria Bay Drive. Queen City News was there as investigators executed the search warrant at the family home on Dec. 21.

The judge’s order also said, “The search warrant affidavits are extremely detailed and contain many facts not available to the public.”

This was a detail that local defense attorney Mark Jetton found unique.

“Some of these search warrants are pretty vanilla, pretty vague. They certainly have some information in there because they are required to have it, but for them to put in the court order that it’s very, very detailed and it seems like a large amount of information and facts, I feel is unique,” he said.

According to the ruling signed by Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Carla Archie, officials believe releasing the warrants could interfere with Cojocari and Palmiter’s right to a fair trial. They’re also concerned releasing the warrants could hinder detectives’ ability to recover additional information from witnesses.

“Obviously, they felt sealing the warrants was more beneficial to the investigation than opening it to the public,” said Jetton.

While it is not unheard of for documents like search warrants to become sealed during the course of criminal investigations, it is the exception to the rule.

“The general rule would be transparency, openness to the public, to the media, and therefore when it’s sealed, that would be against the norm,” said Jetton.

The warrants will be sealed for 90 days unless the courts extend the timeframe.