Cornelius police address speculation after human remains found in Madison County

The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday said that human remains were found in a rural area of Madison County, and it happens to be within miles of a location where the mother of a missing girl from Cornelius was spotted by deputies.

According to the FBI, hunters were in a wooded area near Stackhouse Road in the Pisgah National Forest when they found the human remains on Sunday.

Stackhouse Road is northwest of Marshall, North Carolina.

The FBI says the remains will be sent to a lab in Quantico, Virginia, to be processed. A news release said “it is too early in the investigation to know the identity of the person or their cause of death.”

The location of the remains caused people online to speculate if it’s connected with the disappearance of Madalina Cojocari, who was last seen in November of 2022 and reported missing weeks later.

Her mother, Diana Cojocari, was spotted by deputies near Lonesome Mountain Road, which is close to Stackhouse Road in Madison County.

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Channel 9 reached out to the Cornelius Police Department for information after the remains were found.

Cornelius police said that while the remains haven’t been officially identified, early indications were that they belonged to an older man.

Cojocari’s mother and stepfather were both arrested for failure to report a missing child. Her stepfather, Christopher Palmiter, has been released on bond. Diana Cojocari remains in jail awaiting trial.

(WATCH: Madalina Cojocari’s stepdad bonds out of jail)