The Court of Appeal of Porto confirmed the full acquittal of Fernando Valente on June 11, 2026, regarding the disappearance of pregnant Mónica Silva. The court rejected appeals from the Public Ministry and the victim’s family, citing a total lack of irrefutable evidence for the alleged crimes, including qualified homicide.
The ruling puts a legal end to one of Portugal’s most publicized missing persons cases. In a statement released Thursday morning, the Court of Appeal of Porto announced that both appeals filed by the prosecution and the family were denied.
“Both appeals were judged as not granted, and thus this Court of Appeal of Porto fully confirmed the acquittal of the defendant from the practice of all the crimes of which he was accused – qualified homicide, abortion, profanation of a corpse, illegal access, and counterfeit currency.”
Court of Appeal of Porto, via JN
The judges determined that the initial decision made by the Aveiro Jury Court did not suffer from any substantial errors of judgment or internal flaws. They concluded the first-instance ruling was correct based on a weighted and global evaluation of the evidence provided in the case files.
Why the Porto Court of Appeal rejected the appeals
The court’s decision rests on the failure of the prosecution to bridge the gap between circumstantial suspicion and legal proof. According to the Diário de Notícias, the defendant was originally acquitted in July 2025 after the Aveiro Jury Court found the evidence insufficient to support a conviction.
The Porto judges echoed this sentiment, stating that several circumstantial facts used in the Public Ministry’s accusation were either not demonstrated at all or were mitigated by other evidence. This left the prosecution unable to meet the high threshold of proof required for a criminal conviction.
“The production of irrefutable evidence is required, which did not happen in the process.”
Aveiro Jury Court, via JN
The court specifically noted the absence of proof regarding the defendant’s motivation for the crime, the alleged paternity of the unborn child, and the specific route taken to the supposed location of the death.
The evidentiary void and the missing body
At the center of the legal failure is the absence of a body. Mónica Silva, 33, disappeared on the night of October 3, 2023, in Murtosa while seven months pregnant. Despite extensive investigations, her remains have never been found.
The defense consistently argued that the prosecution’s case was built on speculation. The court agreed, noting that there was no biological evidence to suggest an attack on Silva’s life had occurred. Furthermore, the court found no evidence that a death had even taken place.
Evidence presented during the trial established that Silva was alive late into the night of her disappearance. At 11:19 PM on October 3, 2023, she had a Messenger phone conversation with her youngest son, who reported that his mother did not seem to be under any distress.
The Prosecution’s theory on paternity and motive
The Public Ministry’s case was built on the theory that Fernando Valente, a businessman, was the father of Silva’s child. Prosecutors alleged that Valente killed both the woman and the fetus to avoid recognizing paternity and to prevent potential financial consequences.
The prosecution further claimed that Valente spent the days following the disappearance hiding the body and performing deep cleaning to erase any traces of the crime. However, as reported by SAPO, these claims remained unproven. The legal team for the family had hoped the appeal would lead to a conviction and a sentence of up to 25 years in prison.
Valente denied all involvement from the start of the process, contesting the prosecution’s version of events. The court’s final confirmation of his acquittal validates the defense’s position that the prosecution lacked a “means or mode” to explain how a mortal injury could have been inflicted.
Emotional fallout for the Silva family
While the legal process has reached a conclusion, the human toll remains. The family of Mónica Silva had maintained a strong conviction that the first-instance acquittal was a mistake and that the Porto court would reverse the decision.
The news of the confirmed acquittal has caused severe emotional distress for the family. According to Notícias de Coimbra, Filomena Silva, the aunt of the missing woman, has been left in a state of extreme psychological and physical fragility following the reading of the court’s decision.
For the family, the ruling does not provide the answers they sought. With no body found and no conviction secured, the disappearance of Mónica Silva remains a mystery, leaving the family without legal closure or a definitive explanation for her absence.
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