Court of Appeal confirms release of Fernando Valente in Mónica Silva case
Porto judges find the murder of the pregnant woman from Murtosa unproven and uphold the decision freeing the businessman from custody.
Court of Appeal confirms release of Fernando Valente in Mónica Silva case
The judges of the second largest court in northern Portugal have decided to keep businessman Fernando Valente at liberty. Authorities had accused him of killing Mónica Silva, a pregnant woman who went missing in October 2023 in the Murtosa area. The ruling came out last week, confirming what had already been decided in Aveiro during the summer of 2025.
The extensive judicial document concludes that it can only be stated with certainty that the 33-year-old woman disappeared. As for violent death and the defendant's involvement, the appeals judges consider the evidence collected insufficient for such a conviction. Over more than three hundred pages, they enumerate failings in the work of the investigation forces and in the construction of the case by the public prosecutors.
The prosecution's thesis was based on fear of paternity. According to the prosecutors, Fernando would have eliminated the victim to avoid having to acknowledge the baby she was carrying. The appeals judges reject this hypothesis. They calculate that the pregnancy would have begun in March, whilst the sexual encounters between the couple occurred in January and later in July—therefore, outside the fertile window.
The judges emphasise that if someone had told him the pregnancy was seven months along, Fernando would have immediately understood that the child was not his. For that reason, they rule out that fear of becoming a father would have led him to commit the crime. They add that even Mónica would have had no reason to believe he was the father, criticising investigators for having gone too far in this interpretation.
Both the judges of the Public Ministry and the family of the missing woman had appealed against the first decision, but without success.
Source: Google News PT — Crime (pt)