Jennifer Hudson Offers Reward In Nephew's Disappearance

Jennifer Hudson, the Oscar-winning actress and singer, offered a $100,000 (That's a lot when you consider that even though she is famous, she probably isn't pulling in the big paychecks. But what she does have she is willing to share with her family.) reward last night for the safe return of her seven-year-old nephew, missing since the double murder of her mother and brother at their home in Chicago on Friday.

The offer was made after Ms Hudson’s sister Julia made an emotional plea on behalf of her son. “Give me my baby back,” she said. “That’s all I ask. I know he’s out there. Put him on the side of the street. Just let him go. I have to believe he is OK.” The boy, Julian King, disappeared from the home of his grandmother, Darnell Donerson, 59, whose body was found there along with that of his uncle, Jason Hudson, 29.

They all lived at the same address, along with Julia Hudson, 31. Post-mortem examinations showed that the pair had died from multiple gunshot wounds.

Ms Hudson, who was ejected from American Idol and derided by the British judge Simon Cowell before going on to win an Oscar for her role in the 2006 musical film Dreamgirls, had to identify the bodies after returning to Chicago from Florida, where she had been promoting her latest film, The Secret Lives of Bees. (We have to remember that this just isn't about Jennifer, but her extended family.) Chicago police issued an amber alert, or child abduction bulletin, on Friday. The authorities in Chicago also requested the help of the FBI in case the boy had been taken across state lines.


“We are doing that as a precautionary measure,” Superintendent Jody Weis, of the Chicago police, said in a television interview.

He added that the murders and the child’s disappearance seemed to be part of a domestic dispute. “From what we know right now, it appears to be some type of domestic situation but that is very preliminary. We just have to follow the evidence.”

The police initially identified William Balfour, the estranged husband of Julia Hudson and stepfather of Julian King, as a suspect in the case. The 27-year-old baker has convictions for attempted murder, carjacking and possession of a stolen motor vehicle, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections. (I'm always going on about being careful about who you bring around your children. If a man has been convicted of attempted murder you don't take him home to meet your family. It shows a predilection to violence.)

He was released from prison in May 2006 and is still on probation. He was not living with his estranged wife at the time of the shooting. The couple had recently fought because Mr Balfour had sold Ms Hudson’s car without her permission, according to local media reports.

On Friday, Chicago police had taken Mr Balfour into custody but the missing boy was not with him. Officially, the police would say only that they were interviewing “a number of people”.

Meanwhile, Mr Balfour’s mother protested her son’s innocence. “This is not my son that did this,” a distraught Michele Balfour said. “You cannot say my child did this. He loved Julia. He loved Julia’s mother.” (The mothers always say things like that. Cindy Anthony is in Florida singing the same song.)

Julia Hudson, who drives a school bus for a living, made no mention of her estranged husband on Saturday as she addressed the world’s media at Pleasant Gift Mission Baptist Church in the Kenwood district of Chicago. Flanked by Greg King, 29, the father of the missing boy, she pleaded over and over again for her son to be brought back home.

She described the child as a sensitive boy who preferred reading a book or doing some “schooling” to playing outdoors, and said that her Oscar-winning sister had been at her side since flying back to Chicago. “She flew in right away and we have been together ever since,” Ms Hudson said, adding: “We are still in a state of shock. It’s hard. We are together. We sit and we pray. Nothing else to do but pray.”

Ms Hudson, 27, whose career was on the up with her new film and a No 1 hit on the Billboard R&B/hip-hop charts, had reportedly encouraged her mother to leave Englewood, the gritty South Side neighborhood where she grew up, and where her mother had lived for two decades, but her mother had steadfastly refused.
Also of interest:
Jennifer Hudson Update
When Your Boyfriend Kills Your Child
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