German prosecutors believe Madeleine McCann is dead and are investigating a child sex predator on suspicion of her murder. The suspect - a 43-year-old German national partially identified as Christian B by local media - is reportedly serving a seven-year prison sentence for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal in 2005.
Authorities said they were treating the case as a suspected murder and had determined the method used to kill the toddler. No body has ever been found.
The official announcement will come as a crushing blow to her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, who have never given up hope of finding their daughter alive. "All we ever wanted was to find her," they said in a statement today before the press conference.
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