Update: Police have confirmed that the weapon found is indeed the murder weapon. There are questions as to whether Jason Hudson was the original “owner” of the gun, as he reported to friends and family that he was missing a chrome and black .45 hand gun, the kind found. “Owned” is in quotes because the gun is stolen; its original owner reported stolen from Detroit.
Update: Murder weapon found? Chicago Police have recovered a weapon they believe could be connected to last week’s slayings of relatives of actress and singer Jennifer Hudson, sources said today.
The gun was recovered by police but has not yet been tested to see whether it was involved in the murders of Hudson’s mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew.
Update: From TMZ: We’ve obtained arrest reports and other docs in connection with a sting operation in Chicago. On March 4, 2002, Chicago cops targeted Jason Hudson, Jennifer’s murdered brother, and Gregory King, the father of Julian, the murdered 7-year-old boy. Both men allegedly sold crack cocaine to a registered informant. Cops then raided the very home where Jason was murdered last week. According to documents, Jason, Gregory and Julia (Jennifer’s sister) were all arrested.
Julia was never charged with a crime. Jason was charged with cocaine trafficking, but the main count was dismissed in 2004 because the judge ruled police conducted an illegal search. During that hearing, Jennifer’s mom had to choose whether to go to Hollywood to watch her daughter on “American Idol” or be in court…she chose the latter.
Gregory was convicted. Jason agreed to enroll in a drug abuse program and the less serious remaining charge was dismissed.
Cops say Jason and Gregory were affiliated with the gang, Gangster Disciples. That’s the same gang that William Balfour, the “person of interest” was in. The lawyer who repped Jason told TMZ cops often jumped to conclusions and assumed people in that neighborhood were gang members.
Update: Did killer have help? There’s evidence this morning suggesting there may have been another person involved in the murder of Jennifer Hudson’s mother, brother, and nephew.
Investigators have honed in on William Balfour’s movements after the killings on Chicago’s South Side, according to the Chicago Tribune, and “are trying to determine” if someone else drove the prime suspect to the West Side, where the body of 7-year-old Julian King was found.
Witnesses have told cops they saw Balfour drive a teal Chrysler to the Hudsons’ block on Friday morning, and that car was eventually found about a mile away. The SUV in which Julian was discovered ended up about 13 miles away from the Hudson house.
Update: Julian’s mom posts on myspace: “”LETS SEE IM 29 YEARS OLD I HAVE ONE CHILD AND I’M ALWAYS BORED, I LOVE TO HAVE FUN EVEN START A LITTLE S*** HERE AND THEIR i HAVE TWO YOUNGER SIBLINGS MY SISTER IS JENNIFER HUDSON YES THE JENNIFER HUDSON AND MY BROTHER IS JASON,
I GUESS IT’S TIME TO UPDATE THIS WHEN I STARTED MY MYSPACE ALL OF THE ABOVE WAS TRUE , NOW BECAUSE I CHOSE TO DO WHAT WAS NATURAL TO ME AND LOVE SOMEONE , IT COST ME MY BEAUTIFUL FAMILY MY WONDERFUL BEAUTIFUL LOVING SUPPORTING MOTHER DARNELL, MY TRUE BLUE BABY BROTHER JASON , I LOVE U BIG BABY …
AND LAST BUT NEVER NOT LEAST MY ONLY SON JULIAN , MY INNOCENT BABY ONE THAT WAS SHELTERED FROM ALL THE EVIL OIN THE WORLD BECAUSE WE LOVED HIM SO MUCH… BUT THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR LOVING SUPPORT, I KNOW SOME OF YAL HAVE YOUR OPINIONS AND YOU ARE ENTITLED TO THAT , LIKE WHY IS SHE LOGGING ON TO MYSPACE AT A TIME LIKE THIS , LET ME TELL YOU WHY I WAS HOPING THAT , THAT WAS A WAY TO MAYBE HELP ME GET MY SON, MY BABY THE ONE I CARRIED UNDER MY HEART FOR 8 1/2 MONTHS THE SON IT TOOK ME 21 HOURS OF LABOR TO BRING HERE THE SON I GREW TO KNOW AND LOVE FOR JUST A FEW MONTHS OVER 7 YEARS THATS WHY …
AND NOW FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ACTUALLY CARED THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT , THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS , THANK YOU FOR POSTING HIS PICTURE ON YOUR PAGES AS YOUR DEFAULT PICTURE THANK YOU… BUT HIS LIL SOUL IS AT EASE, I TAKE COMFORT IN KNOWING THAT JULIAN IS WITH MY MOTHER AND MY BROTHER AND MOST OF ALL THE LORD AND NOW HE’S MY ANGEL HE’S PROTECTING ME… ..”
[I'm about to lose hold of my tongue and speak my mind on this woman...lord help me...]
Update: Autopsy today: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0Y0AKxGGo0]
Update [this is twisted] From the Associated Press:
The convicted felon named a suspect in the Chicago murders of three members of Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson’s family was arrested for possession of cocaine in June, but authorities declined to return him to prison on a parole violation, internal parole records show.
The suspect, William Balfour, also missed a meeting with his parole agent on Friday, the day Hudson’s mother and brother were murdered and her 7-year-old nephew went missing. Reached by phone that afternoon, he told the agent he was “baby-sitting on the West Side of Chicago,” according to the documents, obtained by The Associated Press.
The agent said he thought he heard a child in the background during the call.
Hudson’s nephew, Julian King, was found shot to death in the back of an SUV on Chicago’s West Side on Monday.
Update: Balfour’s criminal rap sheet dates back at least a decade. Court records show that Balfour was arrested in 1998 after police spotted him driving a stolen vehicle. They tried to pull him over near the 6900 block of South Yale Avenue — about a block from the Hudson family home — but Balfour stopped the car and fled, according to court records.
Balfour was out on bail when a man saw Balfour breaking into his new Chevrolet Suburban on Nov. 29, 1998, and ran outside to stop him, court records show. Balfour, then 17, drove off with the man hanging from the roof rack.
As police followed, Balfour drove through alleys, front yards, through a police barricade and onto the Dan Ryan Expressway — all with the victim clinging to the vehicle, records indicate. He eventually crashed into a telephone pole and fled.
The victim suffered burns from fallen electrical wires as well as other injuries.
Balfour was sentenced to 7 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted murder and car hijacking in September 1999. He was released in May 2006, returned to the neighborhood where he grew up and reconnected with Julia Hudson, one of the three Hudson siblings he had known while attending Yale Elementary School.
Update: Law enforcement sources tell TMZ why officials believe William Balfour violated his parole — he had missed anger management counseling and substance abuse courses that were required as a condition of his release from prison.
Balfour had served time for attempted murder and carjacking. The anger management lapse is ominous, given that he’s a “person of interest” in the murders of Jennifer Hudson’s mother, brother and nephew.
Several law enforcement sources tell us Balfour could be charged in the murders as early as today, but no timetable is definite.
Update: Julia Hudson arrived Friday morning at Sunrise Bus Co. on payday and discovered her wages had been garnished because of unpaid car payments. Sources said Balfour had taken her car months earlier but promised to make the payments on the vehicle. After seeing her pay stub, Julia Hudson called Balfour to complain about the unpaid bills, sources said.
Police believe that Balfour went to the Hudson family home Friday and shot through the front door, striking Hudson’s brother, Jason. Hudson’s mother, Darnell Donerson, came into the living room, screaming, and Balfour shot her as well, sources said. Shell casings were also found in the child’s room, but there were no bullet holes or other signs of violence there. Much of the account of what police believe happened that day came from an interview with a girlfriend of Balfour’s, sources said. The sources also said Balfour’s girlfriend contradicted his alibi and told police that he was involved in the slayings.
Update: Jennifer and family identify Julian via CC TV: Holding on to each other, overcome by emotion, Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson and six relatives viewed a closed-circuit TV screen at the morgue this afternoon and identified a small boy as Hudson’s 7-year-old nephew Julian King.
The identification came from Hudson. “She said, ‘Yes, that is him,’ according to Sean Howard, a spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner’s office. “Jennifer Hudson was incredbly strong for her family, she was leader in that group and kept her composure.
“She felt like the Lord and saviour Jesus Christ was going to get her through that,” Howard added. “Those were her words.”
Julian’s mother was not there, he said.
Chicago police brought Julian’s body to the medical examiner’s office about 12:15 p.m., said office spokesman Sean Howard.
Hudson and relatives arrived about three hours later. When the group entered a viewing room at the office Hudson held her head down, as if praying, Howard said.
The family identified Julian via a video screen mounted on a wall that showed his face, according to Howard.
With Hudson were two other aunts of Julian’s, an uncle, three other family members, two detectives, Howard and a medical examiner, the spokesman said.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucdd-4zT9mQ]
Update: The Chicago Tribune cites law enforcement sources who say the boy was shot multiple times while in the back of the vehicle. Police are testing the clothing of the suspect in custody for gunshot residue — we believe that to be William Balfour, the estranged husband of Jennifer Hudson’s sister.
Update: A neighbor on the block where Balfour was arrested remembers seeing a man he believes to be Balfour drive up in a white SUV and park on the block late Friday morning – at least two hours after the slaying. The resident said the driver first reached into the glove compartment, and then got out of the car carrying what appeared to be a bottle of liquor. He saw the man walk into the home where Balfour was arrested later in the day.
The driver was wearing a white hooded sweatshirt and was looking over his shoulder as he walked down the block. The driver spent about 10 minutes inside the house. “He was acting suspicious.. . He (the boy) had to be in the car. I figure he had to be. I wished I had known.”
The Suburban pulled up on the block hours before the bodies were discovered, said the man, who has lived on the block 30 years. Residents of the house where Balfour was arrested said officers entered the house Friday evening, and Balfour was arrested in the backyard.
Around 7 a.m. Monday, police approached the Suburban in a neighborhood with many older residents who keep an eye on the street.
LaSahawn Bouie, 36, said officers first opened the back door. “They knew there was a body in there,” he said, adding that investigators looked inside and then too pictures.
Update: Sources said police were hoping to find the body before charging him. Some officers searched for the boy on their own time over the weekend. Jennifer Hudson flew to Chicago to help identify the bodies and was in seclusion over the weekend.
Tio Hardiman, a spokesman for CeaseFire Chicago, called the murders “one of the most heinous crimes to occur in Chicago in some years.
“No one should be forced to lose three family members. If I could trade places with that 7-year-old boy, I would.”
Update: Julian’s stepfather, William Balfour, remains the primary suspect in the murders, police sources say. He is the estranged husband of Julia Hudson.
Balfour and Julia Hudson were at the Yale home much earlier Friday and may have argued, police have been told. A family friend said Balfour had made threats against the family and Julian. Balfour’s mother has denied Balfour was at the home that day.
Balfour was taken into custody at a girlfriend’s home hours after the bodies were found. Sources say the girlfriend contradicted his alibi. Police say they’ve also caught him in at least one other lie. Police were able to track his whereabouts Friday through cell phone records, sources said.
Update: A family friend said Balfour recently had threatened to take Julian away.
Update: Hudson Family to identify boy’s body Investigators were working today to identify the body of a child found in a car on Chicago’s West Side, while family members of Oscar-winning singer and actress Jennifer Hudson assumed the worst–that this was her missing nephew.
The body was found in the white Chevrolet Suburban that police were looking for in their search for 7-year-old Julian King, three days after the bodies of Jennifer Hudson’s mother and brother were found shot to death in the mother’s house in Englewood.
Hudson family members were expected at the medical examiner’s office this afternoon to identify the body.
Police arrived at the Suburban with Illinois license plate X584859 before 8 a.m. in the 1300 block of South Kolin Avenue, after receiving a call of a suspicious vehicle.
It was found by a 75-year-old who lives on the block, John Louden. He said he has lived on the block for 18 years and worried about people selling drugs in the abandoned building behind it. He saw the SUV while walking his dog. After a double-take, he realized the license plate matched the one police were looking for.
Original Post: The Cook County medical examiner’s office is investigating reports on Monday of a child’s body found in an SUV in Chicago.
Authorities said the body was found in backseat on the floor of the 1994 white Chevrolet Suburban SUV registered to Jason Hudson, who was killed along with his mother,
Darnell Donerson, in their home in the 7000 block of South Yale on Friday afternoon.
The SUV was found a few miles from the area where cops arrested Balfour.
The SUV is now being towed from the scene. Unclear if the body is still at the scene. No ID so far.
Neighbors say the vehicle has been parked there since Saturday. Balfour was arrested Friday night.
The SUV has been towed with the body still inside the vehicle. The SUV is now at a police garage in Chicago.
If the boy is identified as Julian King, it will confirm detectives’ worst fears because a law enforcement source said bullet casings were found in the boy’s room on Friday. But, the source said they had not found other evidence of violence in the room.
Chicago police have interviewed William Balfour, 27, the estranged husband of the boy’s mother, Julia Hudson. He was initially described by police as a suspect in the investigation. According to law-enforcement sources, Balfour’s alibi the day of the killings has been contradicted by his girlfriend. Police searched Balfour’s girlfriend’s house for several hours Friday night after taking him into custody. Her home is located about 2.5 miles from where the SUV was found this morning.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgLA12KSyU4]
Developing…
Original post on Hudson killings is here
INFO POSTED COMES FROM CHICAGO AREA TV NEWS STATIONS, THE TRIB AND SUN TIMES, CNN AND MSNBC AS WELL AS TMZ (dont hate).
My heart goes out to her and the family.
I am so speechless and numb right now about this tragedy that I really dont know what to write, say or much less think… I cant imagine what these two woman are going through right now. It seems so unreal yet is all real. I am going to cry out to God and beg him to allow these two sisters to have faith in God that he will get them through all this…
Stand strong in the Lord and He will see you through. My thoughts and prayers are with the Hudson family.
very sorry for your loss, god will see you through it all. may god bless you all.