Friday, October 24, 2008 10:31 PM CDT
Singing star's mother, brother found shot dead
By the ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHICAGO (AP) — The mother and brother of Jennifer Hudson were found shot dead Friday at a South Side home, and police were seeking a missing child who is the nephew of the singer and Oscar-winning actress.
“We can confirm that there is an ongoing investigation concerning the deaths of Jennifer Hudson’s mother, Darnell Donerson, and her brother, Jason Hudson,” Hudson’s personal publicist, Lisa Kasteler, said in a statement. “No further comment will be made and the family has asked that their privacy be respected at this difficult time.”
Police spokeswoman Monique Bond said the deaths appeared to be the result of domestic abuse.
Deputy Chief Joseph Patterson said a family member entered the home around 3 p.m. Friday, found a woman shot on the living room floor and left to notify authorities. Responding officers found a man shot in the bedroom, Patterson said. There was no sign of forced entry.
Police tape blocked access to the large, white house, where a crowd gathered outside. Investigators searched with dogs and flashlights in foliage surrounding a church that faces the home.
Authorities issued an Amber Alert for 7-year-old Julian King, and were seeking a 1994 white Chevrolet Suburban. The child was the grandson of the female victim, Patterson said.
The alert said the child was possibly abducted, and could be accompanied by a man named William Balfour — considered armed and dangerous — who was a suspect in the double homicide investigation.
Records with the Illinois Department of Corrections show Balfour, 27, who has not been charged with a crime, is on parole and spent nearly seven years in prison for attempted murder, vehicular hijacking and possessing a stolen vehicle.
The two could also be in a teal or green Chrysler Concord with a temporary license plate, a left front headlight hanging out and scratches on the left side of the vehicle, police said.
The tragedy comes as Hudson, who grew up in Chicago, continues to reach new heights in her career. Her song “Spotlight” is No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop charts and her recently released, self-tiled album debut and has been a top seller. She was featured in this year’s blockbuster “Sex and the City” and is also starring in hit movie “The Secret Life of Bees.”
She won an Academy Award for best supporting actress in 2007 for her role in “Dreamgirls.” In an interview last year with Vogue, Hudson credited her mother with encouraging her to audition for “American Idol,” which launched her career.
The singer, whose father died when she was a teenager, described herself as very close to her family. In a recent AP interview she said her family, which includes older siblings Julia and Jason, helped keep her grounded.
“My faith in God and my family, they’re very realistic and very normal, they’re not into the whole limelight kind of thing, so when I go home to Chicago that’s just another place that’s home,” she said. “I stand in line with everybody else, or, when I go home to my mom I’m just Jennifer, (so she says), ’You get up and you take care of your own stuff.’ And I love that; I don’t like when people tell you everything you want to hear, I want to hear the truth, you know what I mean.”
Hudson recently announced her engagement to David Otunga, best known for his stint on VH1’s reality show “I Love New York.”
Hudson’s representatives would not disclose her whereabouts Friday. She had been scheduled to appear Monday in Los Angeles to collect an ensemble cast honor at the Hollywood Awards for “The Secret Life of Bees” with co-stars including Alicia Keys, Queen Latifah and Dakota Fanning.
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AP Music Writer Nekesa Moody in New York and AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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