Okay, so I don't want to get too much further away from Madeleine's case, but I believe Joana's case is actually very important and ended up influencing the way the McCann investigation was conducted.
Joana was reported missing on September 12, 2004. Madeleine was reported missing on May 3, 2007. In a country like Portugal, where missing persons cases are not a common thing, let alone a missing child's case, two missing girls from 2004 to 2007 was a big deal. Joana was from Algarve, so both girls went missing in the same region of the country and that's also a big deal.
Long story short, Joana was murdered by her mother and her uncle. She was violently beaten up by both of them, they hit her in the head, she bled through her nose and eventually died. It was pretty violent. It is believed they killed her because she came back from the store, to where they send her to buy some groceries, and witnessed her mother and her uncle having incestuous sex. The uncle mutilated her body and fed it to some pigs. Her body was never found, they confessed. The uncle went into great detail. At the time, this was the most violent crime against a child commited in Portugal.
So, about Leonor Cipriano's black eyes, it was not just those awful black eyes, actually. She was all bruised up, she was clearly beaten up badly.
I believe this assault was carried by these men and Amaral knew about it. He was never sentenced for actually assaulting her, he was sentenced because he made false reports which, to me, says loud and clear that he knew his guys beat her up and tried to cover it up, which didn't really work.
Leonor Cipriano was released this Thursday: "I didn't kill my daughter"