Chicago police have found the body of a boy in an SUV that they were looking for after the shooting deaths of the mother and brother of the actress and singer Jennifer Hudson, and the disappearance of her 7-year-old nephew.Commander Wayne Gulliford of the Chicago police told reporters at a news conference Monday that the SUV matched the one they sought in an Amber Alert issued after the slayings. Mr. Gulliford said the police were waiting for a medical examiner report that would identify the body.
Julian King, Ms. Hudson’s nephew, has been missing since Friday, when Ms. Hudson’s mother and brother were found, at about 3 p.m., shot to death in their Chicago home. Both were dead of multiple gunshot wounds. Julian is believed to have been home at the time of the shooting. Ms. Hudson has offered a $100,000 reward for his safe return. The F.B.I. and local police authorities had been searching for a 1994 white Chevrolet Suburban belonging to Ms. Hudson’s brother, Jason, that was taken from the home after the shootings. That car, with the body of a boy, was found on the city’s west side on Monday morning after a resident reported a suspicious vehicle.
Julian is the son of Ms. Hudson’s older sister, Julia. William Balfour, the boy’s estranged stepfather and former husband of Julia Hudson, has been named as a “person of interest” in the case, but has not been charged.
On Sunday, he was taken into custody by the Illinois Department of Corrections for a parole violation. He has convictions for attempted murder, vehicular hijacking and possession of a stolen motor vehicle, according to the department. He was released from prison in May 2006 and remains on probation.
Jennifer Hudson, whose performance in “Dreamgirls” earned her the Oscar for best supporting actress, had been on a promotional tour in Florida for her latest movie, “The Secret Lives of Bees,” when she received word of the killings. She returned to Chicago on Friday night.
She had been scheduled to leave on Monday for a world tour for her self-titled debut album, which includes the single “Spotlight,” which reached No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B charts.
On Saturday, Julia Hudson called for the return of her son in a tearful plea from a church pulpit, and held out hope he was still alive.
“All I ask, I don’t care who you are, just let the baby go,” she said, speaking from the podium of the Pleasant Gift Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago where her sister used to sing.
