Sister of 'Dreamgirls' star pleads for safe return of son
Prayers for all in this, especially that poor little boy. He probably saw it all happen.:(
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http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/08102...t_hudson_crime
Sister of 'Dreamgirls' star pleads for safe return of son
Sun Oct 26, 7:52 AM
CHICAGO (AFP) - Julia Hudson, the older sister of "Dreamgirls" star Jennifer Hudson, has pleaded for the return of her missing son after two members of her family were gunned down at their Chicago home.
"Give me my baby back. That's all I ask," she said. "I know he's out there. Put him on the side of the street. Just let him go."
A tearful Hudson, 31, said she was clinging to the belief that her seven-year-old son Julian King was alive and well and praying for a swift reunion.
http://d.yimg.com/ca.yimg.com/p/0810...IfqRScwbml_A--
A photo released Oct. 24, 2008, by the Chicago Police Department shows 7-year-old Julian King. Chicago Police issued an Amber Alert Friday, Oct. 24, 2008 for King, who police say may be related to singer and Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson. Authorities were looking for a 1994 white Chevrolet Suburban missing with the boy inside, near a home where two people were found dead. One of two people found dead at the home is also believed to be a relative of Hudson.
(AP Photo/Chicago Police Department)
"I have to believe he is ok. My family is a god-fearing family. That's why we are here today," she said addressing the media at a Baptist church on the South Side of Chicago Saturday.
King disappeared from his grandmother's home on Friday, a home he shared with his mother, grandmother and uncle.
His grandmother, Darnell Donerson, 59, and uncle Jason Hudson, 29, were found shot dead in the home around 3:00 pm by a family member, according to authorities.
Autopsies showed that the pair died from multiple gunshot wounds, the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office said Saturday.
Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson identified the bodies of her mother and brother at the morgue shortly after jetting back to her home town from Florida late Friday, the Chicago Sun-Times said.
The actress, whose star turn in "Dreamgirls" earned her an Oscar for best supporting actress in 2007, was in Florida promoting her latest movie, "The Secret Lives of Bees," when she got word of the tragedy, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Chicago police issued an Amber Alert, or child abduction bulletin, for King on Friday. On Saturday, authorities called in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to help with the search in case the boy had been taken over state lines.
"We're doing that as a precautionary measure," Chicago Police superintendent Jody Weis told CNN. Weis said the slayings and the child's disappearance appeared to be a domestic matter.
"From what we know right now, it appears to be some type of domestic situation, but that's very preliminary," Wei said. "We just have to follow the evidence."
The police initially identified William Balfour, the estranged husband of Julia Hudson, and step-father of Julian King, as a suspect in the case.
Balfour has a lengthy rap sheet and had split up with Julia Hudson and moved out of the home she shared with her family, friends and neighbours said. The Chicago Tribune reported that the couple had recently fought over the fact that Balfour had sold Hudson's car without her permission.
The 27-year-old baker has convictions for attempted murder, vehicular hijacking and possession of a stolen motor vehicle, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections. He was released from prison in May 2006 and is still on probation.
By late Friday, Chicago police had reportedly picked him up and taken him in for questioning, but the boy was not with him.
Officially, the police department would only say that it was quizzing "a number of people."
Balfour's mother was more forthcoming, protesting her son's innocence and complaining that police would not let her speak to her son.
"This is not my son that did this. You cannot say my child did this to this girl. He loved Julia. He loved Julia's mother," a distraught Michele Davis Balfour told reporters on Saturday.
Julia Hudson made no mention of her estranged husband Saturday as she addressed the media at Pleasant Gift Mission Baptist Church in the city's Kenwood neighbourhood.
Flanked by the father of her child, Greg King, 29, she pleaded over and over again for her son to be brought home.
"Please just let my baby go. He doesn't deserve this," she said.
She said King was a "sensitive" boy who preferred reading a book or doing some "schooling" than playing outdoors.
Hudson, a school bus driver, said her sister Jennifer had been at her side since she arrived back in Chicago, and they were seeking solace in prayer.
"She flew in right away and we have been together ever since," said Hudson. "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."
Jennifer Hudson has shunned the spotlight since returning to the Windy City. The 27-year-old was riding high with a new movie, and a number one hit on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop charts from her recently-released self-titled debut album, until the family tragedy upended her life.
The singer had reportedly encouraged her mother to leave Englewood, the gritty South Side neighbourhood where she grew up and where her mother had lived for two decades, following her Oscar success, the Tribune reported.
Donerson "steadfastly refused," the paper said.
