tb4000
10-25-2008, 09:53 AM
(CBS/AP) The mother and brother of Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson were found murdered yesterday in their Chicago home. A suspect is in custody and a nationwide Amber Alert has been issued for Hudson's 7-year-old nephew.
CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers reports that Hudson returned to Chicago last night after news of the deaths.
Hudson has always laid her success at the feet of her mom and her adoring family, a down-to-Earth group who refused to move out of their longtime home in the South Side of Chicago. When neighbors heard gunshots yesterday morning, no one reported them.
A family member entering the house Friday afternoon found the body of Hudson's mother, 57-year-old Darnell Donerson, shot on the living room floor. Responding officers later found her 29-year-old brother Jason Hudson shot in the bedroom, police said.
At least one of the victims suffered defensive wounds, said authorities who described the shooting as domestic violence.
"It really saddens me because they were actually good people," said neighbor Vanessa Stanton.
William Balfour, a man suspected in the deaths, was arrested Friday but had not been charged, law enforcement sources told the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times.
Police spokeswoman Monique Bond said investigators were talking to "a number of people in custody" but she declined to elaborate.
A nationwide Amber Alert was issued for Julian King, 7. He is four feet 11 inches and weighs 130 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes, and was wearing a brown polo shirt with stripes and khaki pants.
Police said the boy might have been in the company of Balfour who was believed to have fled in either a Chevy Suburban or a Chrysler Concord, reports CBS Station WBBM.
The four-door teal green Chrysler was found overnight, but there was no sign of young Julian.
Anyone with information is being asked to call 911 or the Chicago Police Department at (312) 747-8380.
Paul Ciliano, a former Chicago police officer and CBS News consultant, said the Englewood neighborhood where the crimes were committed is "probably the toughest neighborhood in the city of Chicago.
"This is notoriously violent area, the most shootings and car hijackings and tough-and-rumble place on the South Side of Chicago," he told Early Show anchor Priya David.
Ciliano said the first priority of the police right now is locating the missing boy. "That's their focus. They have the suspect, the number one suspect (and only suspect as far as I know) in custody, so right now all their efforts are going towards finding and locating this child and getting him home safely."
He said police are likely questioning Balfour's acquaintances. "I'm sure they have gotten his cell phone and know everybody he has talked to or texted the last 28 to 48 hours."
Records from the Illinois Department of Corrections show Balfour, 27, is on parole and spent nearly seven years in prison for attempted murder, vehicular hijacking and possessing a stolen vehicle. Public records show one of Balfour's addresses as the home where Donerson and Jason Hudson were shot.
Police say Balfour took Donerson's 7-year-old grandson Julian King with him when he fled.
Balfour's mother, Michelle, said her son had been married to Hudson's sister, Julia, for several years, but they were separated. She also said Donerson had ordered him to move out of the family's home last winter.
The Cook County medical examiner's office said autopsies for Donerson and Jason Hudson were pending.
The boy, who may have witnessed the murders, has not been found.
The heartbreaking news comes at a time when Jennifer Hudson has been on top of the world. Newly-engaged and coming off a show-stopping performance at the Democratic National Convention, her single "Spotlight" is on the top of the R&B charts, and her recently released, self-titled debut album has been a top seller. She was featured in this year's "Sex and the City" movie and "The Secret Life of Bees."
http://www.cbsnews.com/images/2007/02/25/image2513603l.jpg(AP)
She won an Academy Award for best supporting actress in 2007 for her first film role, in "Dreamgirls."
Recently on The Early Show, Hudson said, "It's a long journey. I've waited my whole life for this moment. It's very exciting and a learning process."
But fame and fortune has always come second to Hudson's family. And when she returned to the old neighborhood, she still sang with the choir at the Progressive Baptist Church.
"How this come about is such a tragedy, but it's a part of life that we don't always like to face, but, unfortunately, it shows up," said the Rev. Willie Davis.
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?"
In an interview last year with Vogue, Hudson credited her mother with encouraging her to audition for "American Idol," which launched her career.
Hudson recently announced her engagement to David Otunga, best known for his stint on VH1's reality show "I Love New York."
The star is asking for privacy in her time of grief, but her Web site jenniferhudsononline.com (http://www.jenniferhudsononline.com/) is already filled with condolence notes and given how beloved she is by this city, privacy may be hard to come by.
The high profile nature of these killings may focus more attention on Chicago's out-of-control murder rate - 426 murders so far this year - currently outpacing those of New York and Los Angeles.
CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers reports that Hudson returned to Chicago last night after news of the deaths.
Hudson has always laid her success at the feet of her mom and her adoring family, a down-to-Earth group who refused to move out of their longtime home in the South Side of Chicago. When neighbors heard gunshots yesterday morning, no one reported them.
A family member entering the house Friday afternoon found the body of Hudson's mother, 57-year-old Darnell Donerson, shot on the living room floor. Responding officers later found her 29-year-old brother Jason Hudson shot in the bedroom, police said.
At least one of the victims suffered defensive wounds, said authorities who described the shooting as domestic violence.
"It really saddens me because they were actually good people," said neighbor Vanessa Stanton.
William Balfour, a man suspected in the deaths, was arrested Friday but had not been charged, law enforcement sources told the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times.
Police spokeswoman Monique Bond said investigators were talking to "a number of people in custody" but she declined to elaborate.
A nationwide Amber Alert was issued for Julian King, 7. He is four feet 11 inches and weighs 130 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes, and was wearing a brown polo shirt with stripes and khaki pants.
Police said the boy might have been in the company of Balfour who was believed to have fled in either a Chevy Suburban or a Chrysler Concord, reports CBS Station WBBM.
The four-door teal green Chrysler was found overnight, but there was no sign of young Julian.
Anyone with information is being asked to call 911 or the Chicago Police Department at (312) 747-8380.
Paul Ciliano, a former Chicago police officer and CBS News consultant, said the Englewood neighborhood where the crimes were committed is "probably the toughest neighborhood in the city of Chicago.
"This is notoriously violent area, the most shootings and car hijackings and tough-and-rumble place on the South Side of Chicago," he told Early Show anchor Priya David.
Ciliano said the first priority of the police right now is locating the missing boy. "That's their focus. They have the suspect, the number one suspect (and only suspect as far as I know) in custody, so right now all their efforts are going towards finding and locating this child and getting him home safely."
He said police are likely questioning Balfour's acquaintances. "I'm sure they have gotten his cell phone and know everybody he has talked to or texted the last 28 to 48 hours."
Records from the Illinois Department of Corrections show Balfour, 27, is on parole and spent nearly seven years in prison for attempted murder, vehicular hijacking and possessing a stolen vehicle. Public records show one of Balfour's addresses as the home where Donerson and Jason Hudson were shot.
Police say Balfour took Donerson's 7-year-old grandson Julian King with him when he fled.
Balfour's mother, Michelle, said her son had been married to Hudson's sister, Julia, for several years, but they were separated. She also said Donerson had ordered him to move out of the family's home last winter.
The Cook County medical examiner's office said autopsies for Donerson and Jason Hudson were pending.
The boy, who may have witnessed the murders, has not been found.
The heartbreaking news comes at a time when Jennifer Hudson has been on top of the world. Newly-engaged and coming off a show-stopping performance at the Democratic National Convention, her single "Spotlight" is on the top of the R&B charts, and her recently released, self-titled debut album has been a top seller. She was featured in this year's "Sex and the City" movie and "The Secret Life of Bees."
http://www.cbsnews.com/images/2007/02/25/image2513603l.jpg(AP)
She won an Academy Award for best supporting actress in 2007 for her first film role, in "Dreamgirls."
Recently on The Early Show, Hudson said, "It's a long journey. I've waited my whole life for this moment. It's very exciting and a learning process."
But fame and fortune has always come second to Hudson's family. And when she returned to the old neighborhood, she still sang with the choir at the Progressive Baptist Church.
"How this come about is such a tragedy, but it's a part of life that we don't always like to face, but, unfortunately, it shows up," said the Rev. Willie Davis.
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?"
In an interview last year with Vogue, Hudson credited her mother with encouraging her to audition for "American Idol," which launched her career.
Hudson recently announced her engagement to David Otunga, best known for his stint on VH1's reality show "I Love New York."
The star is asking for privacy in her time of grief, but her Web site jenniferhudsononline.com (http://www.jenniferhudsononline.com/) is already filled with condolence notes and given how beloved she is by this city, privacy may be hard to come by.
The high profile nature of these killings may focus more attention on Chicago's out-of-control murder rate - 426 murders so far this year - currently outpacing those of New York and Los Angeles.