Hudson offers $100,000 reward

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By Rupa Shenoy ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHICAGO | Jennifer Hudson and her family offered a $100,000 reward Sunday for the safe return of her missing nephew, as investigators looked for forensic evidence near the home where her mother and brother were found fatally shot.

Mourners dressed in their Sunday best milled outside the childhood home of the Oscar-winning actress, along with investigators seeking clues to the whereabouts of 7-year-old Julian King, the son of Jennifer Hudson's sister, Julia.

In a statement Sunday night from publicist Lisa Kasteler, Jennifer Hudson appealed to the public for its help. "Jennifer and her family appreciate the enormous amount of love, support and prayers they have received while she and her family try to cope with this tragedy and continue the search for Julian," it said.

Chicago police ramped up search efforts for Julian around the Englewood neighborhood, where Miss Hudson grew up, and transferred custody of a "person of interest" in the killings to state authorities.

An Amber Alert remained in effect Sunday for Julian, who disappeared Friday, the day the bodies of his grandmother, Darnell Donerson, 57, and uncle Jason Hudson, 29, were found in the home they shared on the city's South Side. The deaths were ruled homicides.

The Amber Alert listed William Balfour, 27, the estranged husband of Julia Hudson, as a suspect in a "double homicide investigation."

Police called the case "domestic related." Chicago police spokeswoman Monique Bond said Balfour had not been charged. "There's a lot of forensic evidence," she said. "Most importantly, we want to find the child."

Authorities said the search for Julian would be citywide, but on Sunday, residents and officers focused their efforts "in the immediate vicinity" of the home, said a police spokesman.

Miss Bond said no weapon had been found at the Hudson home, a three-story house sandwiched by vacant lots littered with trash.

Jennifer Hudson, who won an Academy Award for best supporting actress in 2007 for her role in "Dreamgirls," was in Chicago with her family during the weekend, her sister said. The Cook County medical examiner's office confirmed she had identified the bodies of her mother and brother.

Miss Bond said Balfour, who had been in police custody since Friday, was transferred Sunday to the Illinois Department of Corrections "based on his active parole violation unrelated to this investigation."

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

cAP writers Caryn Rousseau and Sophia Tareen contributed to this report.