Jemel Countess/Getty Images, http://celebrity.myspace.comIn what appears to be the horrible conclusion to an epically tragic weekend for Jennifer Hudson's family, Chicago authorities have recovered the body of a 7-year-old boy fitting the description of the entertainer's missing nephew.
Officials have yet to identify the remains, found in an SUV abandoned on a Chicago street, as those of Julian King, but the circumstantial evidence is mounting.
Illinois police have canceled the Amber Alert for the boy. And at a press conference in Washington, D.C., FBI Deputy Director John S. Pistole said, "[The body is] who we believe to be the missing victim in Chicago, the nephew of Jennifer Hudson. We are working with Chicago police to get a positive identification of the victim."
The Cook County medical examiner has an autospy planned for Tuesday.
There has been no immediate word from the Hudson family.
Julian vanished following the slayings of Hudson's mother and brother, who were shot dead in their home Friday. Police issued an Amber Alert and FBI kidnapping experts were called in to help search for a white 1994 Chevy Suburban—the same vehicle in which the body was discovered, about 14 miles from the murder site. (View map.)
Over the weekend, Hudson and her sister, Julia, the boy's mother, both made emotional pleas for Julian's safe return. The Oscar-winning Dreamgirls star also offered a $100,000 reward and asked fans "to pray for our family."
The boy's stepfather, William Balfour, 27, was detained by police but has not formally been charged. He is currently in the custody of state officials.
(Originally published Oct. 27, 2008, at 7:02 a.m. PT.)