Hudson Appeals For Nephew's Safe Return

$100,000 Reward Offered For 7-Year-Old Boy Missing Since Singer's Mother, Brother Murdered

(CBS/AP)  As detectives work around the clock to find clues, dozens more officers joined Jennifer Hudson's family and friends desperately searching for any information about where her nephew, 7-year-old Julian King, could be.

The boy's mother, Julia Hudson, Jennifer's sister, is begging for his safe return.

"Let my son go, please," she said. "That's all I ask. I just want my son."

A memorial continues to grow outside the Chicago home where Hudson grew up and where the Oscar-winning actress has returned twice a month to visit her family. Hudson remains in seclusion grieving the murder of her mother and brother Friday but worrying about the little boy she calls Little Julian.

Businesses in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood are blanketed with pictures of the boy who disappeared Friday, the same day his grandmother, Darnell Donerson, and her son, Jason Hudson, were found shot to death in their home.

Jennifer Hudson offered a $100,000 reward for the safe return of her nephew and posted this statement on her MySpace page, saying, "Thank you all for your prayers and your calls. Please keep praying for our family and that we get Julian King back home safely."

An Amber Alert remains in effect this morning.

CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers said Hudson had reportedly tried to get her family to move out of the rough South Side neighborhood called Englewood, but they refused.

A measure of the neighborhood's crime is that, as gunshots rang out Friday, no one thought to call police, giving the killer a huge head-start, perhaps with an innocent child in tow.

Neighbor Angela Russell, who grew up next door to the Hudson family, remembered Donerson as well-liked. "Miss Hudson, which we call her, kept to herself," Russell told Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen.

"Her children respect her to the utmost. There was never any problems with Miss Hudson in the neighborhood. Everybody likes her and respected her. Jason also has a lot of friends in the neighborhood. Everybody knows and respects him as well. So this is really something that's really unexpected and the fact that it seems so personal is really what is troubling everyone."

As to the family's worry about the missing boy, Russell said, "There is no words of comfort that anybody can offer at this point. I think the only thing the family really feels to comfort them is having Julian in their arms, knowing he is safe and OK."

Hudson, who won an Academy Award for best supporting actress in 2007 for her role in "Dreamgirls," was in Chicago with her family during the weekend, her sister said. Hudson's publicist did not disclose her whereabouts, but the Cook County medical examiner's office confirmed she identified the bodies of her mother and brother.

The deaths were ruled homicides.

"Detectives are working 24 hours on this case," said Chicago police spokeswoman Monique Bond. "There's a lot of forensic evidence. We have to work the evidence and try and solve this case. Most importantly, we want to find the child."

Anyone with information is being asked to call 911 or the Chicago Police Department at [phone].

The Amber Alert listed William Balfour, the estranged husband of Julia Hudson, as a suspect in a "double homicide investigation."

Police said they did not have a motive for the killings but called the case "domestic related." Bond said Balfour, who had been in police custody since Friday, was transferred Sunday to the Illinois Department of Corrections "based on his active parole violation unrelated to this investigation."

Balfour has not been charged in the slayings.

Records from the Corrections Department show Balfour, 27, is on parole and spent nearly seven years in prison for attempted murder, vehicular hijacking and possessing a stolen vehicle.

Corrections spokeswoman Januari Smith said Balfour would probably remain in state custody until the Illinois Prisoner Review Board looked at his case. She would not say where Balfour was being held.

It was unclear whether Balfour had an attorney Sunday, but his mother, Michele Balfour, has denied he was involved the killings or in Julian's disappearance.