Actress's missing nephew sought

US police investigating the killing of the mother and brother of actress Jennifer Hudson are still searching for her sister Julia's son, aged seven.

Darnell Donerson, 57, and Jason Hudson, 29, were found shot dead at their family home in Chicago on Friday by Julia when she returned from work.

Police have detained Julia's husband William Balfour, the boy's stepfather, but no charges have been brought.

Julia Hudson has appealed for the safe return of her son.

A state-wide alert has been issued in Illinois for the little boy.

Gunshot wounds

Police say the two adults died from gunshot wounds.

Police have issued a state-wide alert for Jennifer Hudson's nephew

Julia Hudson's son, Julian King, is believed to have been in the house with his grandmother and uncle before the shooting.

Deputy Police Chief Joseph Patterson said Ms Donerson's body had been found on the living-room floor of her home in the south side of Chicago. Jason Hudson's body was discovered in the bedroom.

Investigators say there did not appear to be any sign of forced entry.

The authorities have issued an amber alert - the US term for a search for a missing child - for Julian King.

"Give me my baby back, that's all I ask," Julia Hudson said, speaking to media at a Baptist church on Chicago's South Side.

"I know he's out there. Put him on the side of the street. Just let him go."

Stepfather held

William Balfour, 27, was taken into custody for questioning after being named in a police alert regarding the child's disappearance.

Jennifer Hudson won an Oscar for her role in Dreamgirls in 2006

Mr Balfour's mother, Michele Davis Balfour, denied her son had anything to do with the killings or the boy's disappearance.

"I'm very upset with the police because they are refusing to let me see my son," she was quoted as saying by the Chicago Sun-Times.

She said that Ms Donerson had ordered her son to move out of the family home last winter.

Records from the Illinois Department of Corrections show that Mr Balfour is on parole after having spent nearly seven years in prison for attempted murder, hijacking and possessing a stolen car.

Jennifer Hudson, 27, a singer-turned-actress who found fame on American Idol in 2005, won an Oscar for best supporting actress in the hit-film Dreamgirls in 2006 and starred in the film Sex and the City.

She is currently starring in The Secret Life of Bees while her song Spotlight is No 1 in the Billboard R&B charts.

Her representatives would not disclose her whereabouts but it is believed she has travelled back to Chicago.

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