FBI joins search for Hudson’s nephew, 7

Chicago police asked the FBI on Saturday to help find the missing 7-year-old nephew of Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson after her mother and brother were found shot to death in her childhood home a day earlier.

Julian King -- the son of Julia Hudson, Jennifer’s sister -- has been missing since Friday, when his grandmother Darnell Donerson, 57, and uncle Jason Hudson, 29, were found dead in Donerson’s South Side home.

“Let my baby go,” Julia Hudson told reporters. She appeared at a news conference with the missing boy’s father, Greg King.

Chicago police spokesman Daniel O’Brien said the FBI was asked to help in the search because Julian might have been taken across state lines. An FBI spokesman confirmed that the agency was assisting.

O’Brien declined to confirm reports that police were holding William Balfour, 27, in the double homicide. Balfour’s mother, Michele, has told reporters that her son is Julia Hudson’s estranged husband and that he had nothing to do with the slayings.

Records from the Illinois Department of Corrections show Balfour as having been convicted of attempted murder, car theft and vehicular hijacking. He was released from prison in 2006.

O’Brien said that more than one person had been questioned but that no one had been charged with a crime. He did not release any names. On Friday, a police spokeswoman said the slayings appeared to be “domestic-related.”

The Cook County medical examiner’s office ruled the deaths -- from gunshot wounds, it said Saturday -- as homicide.

Hudson gained fame in 2005 as a contestant on “American Idol.” She landed the role of Effie White in the 2006 motion picture adaptation of the stage musical “Dreamgirls.”

The role of soulful singer White, who is kicked out of a 1960s singing group, earned Hudson the Academy Award for best supporting actress, among other awards, and made her an instant star in Hollywood.

Hudson has since appeared in the movies “Sex and the City” and “The Secret Life of Bees.” Media reports said Hudson was in Florida when she learned of the shootings and went to Chicago.

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This report includes information from the Associated Press.