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Condolences goes out to Jennifer Hudson and her family. The singer/actress' 57-year old Darnell Hudson Donnerson was one of two victims found shot to death in Donnerson's Southside Chicago home at around 3 p.m. today. According to TMZ.com, Jennifer's brother 29-year-old Jason Hudson is the other victim. He was found shot in the chest and Donnerson was found fatally shot in the head. The bodies were reportedly discovered by a cousin who lived down the street from Donnerson. The shooting is believed to be domestic. When the fire department arrived and discovered the bodies were already dead, police were brought in and the home was declared a crime scene.
Jennifer is on a private plane headed to Chicago. She learned of the deaths and boarded the plane immediately.
Hudson became famous after appearing on
American Idol in 2004. She went on to win an Oscar for her performance in the film
Dreamgirls.
Jennifer has got to be inconsolable right about now, and understandably so. I was just reading her interview in
Upscale magazine where she talked about how close she is with her mother and her two siblings (a brother and a sister) and how tight they are as a family. She said they (especially her mama and sister) wanted nothing at all to do with the media spotlight and all the other crazy stuff that comes along when you're related to a celebrity. Now that they have gotten the spotlight, so to speak, it's bad news such as this. This is so unbelievable.
UPDATE: Chicago law enforcement authorities say Jennifer's nephew, 7-year-old child Julian King, is missing from the home. According to a source, the actress' sister reported the boy as missing. At this time police are now searching for a 1994 white Chevrolet Suburban with license plate X584859. It is believed that the child was either kidnapped for ransom or is being held as hostage. An Amber Alert has been issued.
UPDATE: According to Chicago police, it was Jennifer's sister's husband who stole Jason's van and kidnapped Julian. Julian is described as being 5-foot tall, 135 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair.
UPDATE: Apparently, the neighborhood where Jennifer's mother and brother were killed is so used to crime and violence, they paid no attention to several gunshots that were reportedly fired near the home at around 8 or 9 am this morning. According to the Chicago police, Darnell's body was found in the living room of the home while the body of her son Jason was discovered in a bedroom. Sources say Jason was last seen my his neighbors at around 2 am this morning.
UPDATE: The police said that they are searching for a William Balfour (the husband of Jennifer's sister Julia and Julian's step-father) as a suspect in the double homicide. They said he is considered to be armed and dangerous, and may be driving a white 1994 Chevrolet Suburban with Illinois license plate No. X584859 or a teal/green Chrysler Concord four-door with a left front headlight hanging out that is scratched all along its left side. The Chrysler is displaying temporary tags of 332K823. While police identify Balfour as a suspect in the Amber Alert, he has not been charged. Public records list one of Balfour's previous addresses as Donnerson's home.
Court records show Balfour pleaded guilty in 1999 to attempted murder and vehicular hijacking. He also was convicted in a 1998 case of possession of a stolen motor vehicle, the records show. According to the Illinois Department of Corrections website, Balfour is currently on parole after serving jail time for attempted murder.This is a damn shame. What is really going on?
In an interview last year with Vogue, Hudson credited her mother 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?"
Julia's husband and #1 police suspect William Balfour; Jennifer's sister Julia and their brother Jason Hudson.
Jennifer and Julia
Jennifer and her estranged brother-in-law William Balfour
Jennifer's mother Darnell with her grandson Julian and his mother Julia.
Julia and her husband William
Jennifer with her mother Darnell and sister Julia
Jason picking up his sister Julia from her job after her husband William stole her car.
A dated Myspace image of William getting faded at Jennifer's mother's home.
Julia with her son Julian at an afterparty thrown for Jennifer in 2008.
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