CHICAGO:

Desperate pleas for the safe return of Jennifer Hudson’s seven-year-old neph-ew ended in despair on October 27 when police found the boy’s bullet-riddled body in an abandoned vehicle on Chicago’s west side.

Julian King had not been seen since Hudson’s sister discovered the bodies of their brother and mother shot to death in the family home on Friday afternoon.

While it is too soon to guess at a motive, police believe “it wasn’t the case of a stranger-type homicide,” superintendent Jody Weis told reporters. Weis said he was “pretty optimistic” the evidence would lead them to the killer.

The boy’s stepfather, William Balfour, is considered a “person of interest,” Weis said.

Balfour, who was taken into custody for questioning on Friday, is being held on a parole violation but has not been charged.

Estranged from Hudson’s older sister Julia, he has denied involvement in the murders or disappearance, law enforcement sources said. — AFP