It is sad when one can’t consider your own home as a safe place to be. Jennifer Hudson’s, from American Idol, mother and brother was found by a relative in Hudson’s mother’s home on the South Side of Chicago where they had been apparently gunned down during a domesticate dispute according to law enforcement officials.

Hudson’s brother in law, William Balfour has been named as a suspect but hasn’t been charged. Balfour married Hudson’s sister, Julia in 2006. Police believe that he kidnapped his stepson although when he was arrested the boy wasn’t with him. The boy, Julian King is 7 years old is about 5 ft tall and weighs about 135 lbs and he is still missing but an Amber Alert has been issued for him.

Balfour’s mother, Michele Balfour said that her son and Julia Hudson were separated and Hudson’s mother, Darnell Donerson, 57, had thrown him out of the family home last winter. She denied that her son had anything to do with the slayings.

“I didn’t raise no murderer,” she said. “He was not a child abductor. They have the wrong person.” She made a plea to the real abductors to return the child to his mother.

About 3 pm Friday a relative found Darnell Donerson where she had been fatally shot in the head. They notified police and they also found, Jason Hudson, 29 in a bedroom where he had been shot in the chest according to Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Neighbors reported hearing gunshots about 9:00 that morning and there were no signs of forced entry.

Jennifer Hudson is seen a the American dream because of her rejection on American Idol but she later landed an Oscar for her role in the hit musical in 2006 “Dreamgirls”. She is currently starring in the Queen Latifah movie, “The Secret Life of Bees”. She sang the National Anthem at the Democratic Convention in August in Denver the night that Obama accepted the presidential nomination.

She lost her father when she was just a teenager but she credits her close knit family for keeping her grounded. “My family, they’re realistic and normal. They’re not into the whole limelight kind of thing so when I go home to Chicago, that’s just another place that’s home,” she said in an interview recently.

My heart and prayers got out to her for the loss of members of her family. I can’t begin to imagine how she feels. I also pray for the safe return of her nephew, Julian.

Jan Barrett