Sad news for Jennifer Hudson

My heart goes out to this very talented woman. She is at the top of her craft, newly engaged, and this tragedy happens.


Jennifer Hudson ID'd nephew Julian King's body in Chicago
BY ADAM LISBERG IN CHICAGO AND CORKY SIEMASZKO IN NEW YORK
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
AP
Missing 7-year-old Julian King in a photo released by police.
Jennifer Hudson endured more heartbreak Monday when she identified the body of her 7-year-old nephew - found shot to death in an SUV - at the Chicago city morgue.
The Oscar-winning actress and singer, who grew up in the Windy City, journeyed to the coroner's office, where the body of little Julian King lay on a gurney covered with a white sheet.
"Yes, that is him," Hudson said quietly when she saw the boy's face on a video screen, said Sean Howard, a spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner's office.
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For Hudson, whose mother and brother were found slain Friday, it brought the devastating death toll in her family to three.
Still, she did not buckle under the grief: "She was just brilliant and strong," Howard said.
"Her last words to me were, 'Just tell the general public once again to respect my family's privacy.'"
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Hudson said her faith in Jesus Christ "was going to get her through that," Howard said. "Those were her words."
As she left the facility, Hudson's bodyguards held umbrellas to hide her anguish.
Nobody has been charged with the murders, but cops are holding William (Flex) Balfour, 27, the estranged husband of Hudson's sister Julia, at a state prison for a parole violation.
"We're following any lead we can get right now," said city Police Superintendent Jody Weis.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported Julian had been shot once in the head and was dressed in basketball shorts and a stained white T-shirt.
Julian vanished Friday from his home on the gritty South Side after Hudson's mom, Darnell Donerson, 57, and brother Jason Hudson, 29, were gunned down.
Jennifer Hudson, 27, who won an Oscar for her role in "Dreamgirls," and had remained tight with her family, immediately flew home and offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to Julian's safe return.
The hope that he was still alive was dashed Monday morning when Julian was found on the floor of a Chevy Suburban truck that had belonged to his murdered uncle.
Balfour, Julian's stepdad, has a long rap sheet: He has spent nearly seven years behind bars for attempted murder, vehicle hijacking and possession of a stolen vehicle.
Out on parole, he was shacked up with another woman in a violent, drug-infested neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago near where Julian was found.
"He's like a cool little cat," an upstairs neighbor of Balfour's girlfriend said of the ex-con.
It was a dog walker who spotted the suspicious truck and called the cops, and it matched the one sought in an Amber Alert issued after Friday's double murder.
As police searched weed-strewn vacant lots and alleys, neighbors said they noticed the truck Sunday.
"I'd seen it out there three or four times Monday," one woman, who would not give her name, said. She could not explain why she didn't call police.