The family of Milly Dowler, the teenage murder victim whose voice mail messages were illegally intercepted by The News of the World, has been offered a multimillion-dollar settlement by the tabloid’s parent company, a person with knowledge of the negotiations said Monday.

Murdochs and his sons company The News of the World is believed to have hacked into the voice mails of hundreds, possibly thousands, of people, including celebrities and politicians. Widespread public revulsion resulted from the revelation in July that its victims included the 13-year-old Milly Dowler, who disappeared in 2002 and whose messages were intercepted and erased to make room for new ones even as her family searched for her.