Authorities were holding a suspect with ties to the family, but no one had been charged yesterday. Law enforcement sources told the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times that William Balfour was in custody, and the man's mother said he is Julia Hudson's estranged husband.
Balfour was named in an Amber Alert issued after Julian's disappearance. Julia Hudson did not comment on her relationship to Balfour.
The Hudsons, who have insisted on not allowing 27-year-old Jennifer's fame to alter their lives, lived in a three-story white house bordered by vacant lots. A grill and bottle of mustard stood on the lawn yesterday, remnants of the barbecues they were known to throw on birthdays and holidays.
"They wouldn't turn anyone away," said Bob Israel, who lives in the neighborhood. "They didn't want to change a bit."
An autopsy found that Darnell Donerson, 57, and Jason Hudson, 29, died of gunshot wounds, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Their deaths were ruled homicides.
Police said a family member entering Donerson's South Side home Friday found a woman's body on the living room floor. Officers later found Hudson, who had been shot, in the bedroom. At least one of the victims suffered defensive wounds, said authorities, who described the shooting as domestic violence.
That same day, Julia Hudson reported Julian King missing. Chicago police spokeswoman Monique Bond, who declined to comment on a suspect yesterday, said no one had been charged. She has said that investigators were talking to "a number of people in custody."
Bond said the FBI had been called in to help in the search for the boy on "the possibility or any theory that he could have been take across state lines." But she added, "We have nothing to prove that."
Records from the Illinois Department of Corrections state that Balfour, 27, is on parole; he spent nearly seven years in prison for attempted murder, vehicular hijacking, and possessing a stolen vehicle. Public records show one of Balfour's addresses as the home where Donerson and Jason Hudson were shot.
