Chicago Area Local News

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Police intensified their search efforts Sunday for Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson's 7-year-old nephew, missing since the shooting deaths of the boy's grandmother and uncle. City police also made plans to transfer custody of a "person of interest" in the shooting deaths to state authorities.

CBS 2's Pamela Jones reports that the Amber Alert is still in effect Sunday for the missing boy, Julian King. Police and family members said he could be in a white Chevy Suburban with Illinois license plate number X584-859.

Authorities said the search for Julian would be citywide, but on Sunday residents and officers focused their efforts "in the immediate vicinity" of the family's home in the Englewood section, said police spokesman Dan O'Brien.

Police said they did not have a motive for the killings but called the case "domestic related."

"There's a lot of forensic evidence. We have to work the evidence and try and solve this case," Bond said Sunday. "Most importantly, we want to find the child."

"All I ask, I don't care who you are, just let my baby go. Please. I just want my son," Hudson's sister, Julia Hudson, said in a tearful plea for the safe return of her son at Pleasant Gift Missionary Baptist Church, the family's church. "If your beef is with me, then take it up with me. He's 7. Let my son go, please."

The mother said the last time she talked with Julian was Thursday, when they went out to eat to celebrate her birthday.

Julian's father, Greg King, spoke outside the church briefly. "I just want my son," King said. "He needs to come home."

Julia Hudson said the deaths of her mother and brother has left her close-knit family "in a state of shock."

"It hurts," she said. "I don't know what else to do besides pray."

Hudson's mother, 57-year-old Darnell Donerson, was found slain at home in the 7000 block of South Yale Avenue Friday afternoon. Also found fatally shot was her 29-year-old son, Hudson's brother, Jason.

The estranged husband of Julia Hudson, William Balfour, was being interviewed by police Saturday. No charges had been filed against him. His mother, Michele Davis Balfour, said he had nothing to do with the double homicide.

William Balfour's stepson has not been seen since the slayings. Chicago Police called in the help of the FBI in the search for the boy, Police Supt. Jody Weis said Saturday.

Enough time has passed that it's a possibility the boy was taken across state lines, Weis said.

"When a certain amount of time passes, that's why we would reach out to the FBI," Weis said. "We're going to use any resource we can to solve it."

Autopsies on Donerson and Jason Hudson revealed they died from multiple gunshot wounds. At least one of the victims suffered defensive wounds.

Jennifer Hudson, a top-selling singer and accomplished actor who got her break on "American Idol," flew from Florida to Chicago Friday night. She was taken to the Cook County morgue, where she identified the bodies of her mother and brother.

"Our prayers go out to her," Mayor Richard Daley said at a Northwest Side anti-violence march Saturday morning. "Jody Weis and the police department [are] working to make sure they get the offender."

William Balfour has been married to another Donerson daughter, Julia Hudson, for about two years. They had lived together in the Yale Avenue home. But the couple has been having problems, were separated and were planning to divorce, family members said.

Julian King was not with Balfour when police brought him in for interviewing Friday night, leading to the continued search.

Weis said police collected a large amount of forensic evidence from the Yale Avenue crime scene, and the evidence was being processed.

Still missing is a white SUV that police believe Balfour could have driven from the Hudson family home, several sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.

According to his MySpace page, Balfour says he is married to Julia Hudson. Michele Davis Balfour said her son and Julia Hudson had been married about two years, but had problems as recently as two weeks ago.
 
Chicago police spokeswoman Monique Bond says authorities consider Balfour a "person of interest" in the case but he hasn't been charged.

Bond says he'll be transferred to the Illinois Department of Corrections "based on his active parole violation unrelated to this investigation."

Records from the Illinois Department of Corrections show Balfour is on parole and spent nearly seven years in prison for attempted murder, vehicular hijacking and possessing a stolen vehicle.

CBS 2's Pamela Jones, the Associated Press and the STNG WIRE contributed to this report.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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