BY TANYA BRICKING
The Cincinnati Enquirer
![[dowdell]](/editions/1998/09/17/dowdell_200x129.jpg)
Nikki Dowdell, left, gets a look at a photo of her brother, Troy, from his adoptive mother, Betty Jackson.
(Michael E. Keating photo)
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The days of wondering where her long-lost brother could be are over for Tanika "Nikki" Dowdell.
A family she never knew existed is beginning to give her answers. The day after a story of her emotional search for her identity appeared in The Cincinnati Enquirer, Nikki learned that her brother is living in Colfax, La.
She lost track of her brother after her mother was killed. He was adopted. She went to live with a grandmother who Nikki thought was really her mother. In the past few months, she has learned the truth, or at least parts of the truth. And now finding her brother is the best news.
Nikki, a 20-year-old Madison Place woman who is pregnant and about to marry, had hoped that finding her brother would close the missing link to her past and give her strength to start a family of her own.
"I can't believe it," she said Wednesday after meeting her brother's family. "It seems like a big old dream."
Learning the story
Nikki has been trying to piece together the story of her family for months, ever since she found a copy of her birth certificate carried a different name under "Mother."
The woman she grew up believing was her mother was actually her grandmother, and the mother of the woman who was her real mother. Nikki's grandmother has refused to discuss what happened 20 years ago.
The missing pieces of Nikki's past began in 1978 the night her mother, Caprine "Louise" Dowdell, died at 17 in an unsolved homicide, 20 years ago this week.
Her older brother, Troy Lydone Dowdell, was born Aug. 16, 1976. A year later, he was placed in foster care. Nikki was born about six months later.
Troy was adopted by Betty Jackson and her husband, who renamed him Troy Jermaine Jackson. The boy grew up in Mount Healthy. Nikki grew up in Evanston, on the other side of town.
When Troy was about 15, Ms. Jackson told him he was adopted. They knew he had a sister, but his adoption records were sealed until he was 18. Ms. Jackson and her husband divorced. Troy moved to Louisiana with Butler Jackson Jr. about six years ago.
Ms. Jackson said Troy never asked about his birth mother. Ms. Jackson told her son she'd help him if he ever wanted to find his birth family.
It was Tuesday morning that DeeAnn Roley, an adoption social worker at the Hamilton County Department of Human Services, read the story on Page 1 of The Enquirer about Nikki's search. She told her boss about it.
Jacqueline Poignard, the adoption supervisor, met Nikki in July when she was searching for records. At the time, their efforts to find Troy were unsuccessful. After reading the newspaper article, Mrs. Poignard made Nikki's case a priority.
"It just broke my heart," she said. "I just pulled the record out again and went over it with a fine-tooth comb."
She found the name of the woman who adopted Troy. By the end of the day, she located Betty Jackson.
Ms. Jackson was happy to be found.
At work that day as a mental-health technician at the Pauline Warfield Lewis Center, a psychiatric center in Roselawn, a nurse kept talking about the sad story she read in the paper. It wasn't until Ms. Jackson got home to a message on her answering machine that she realized she was part of the tale.
Troy happened to call Ms. Jackson that night. She told him about Nikki. The brother and sister are now making plans to talk.
Nikki didn't expect to find her brother this quickly. She can't wait to talk to him.
From the moment she walked in Ms. Jackson's house Wednesday, she studied every picture and asked a thousand questions.
Ms. Jackson is treating Nikki as a long-lost member of the family, pulling out every photo album she can find. "God works in mysterious ways," Ms. Jackson said.
Other people were touched by Nikki's story.
Jacqueline Kinard, a clinical psychologist with a practice in Mariemont, is offering Nikki and her family free counseling for the difficult transitions that lie ahead.
Samuel Brown, 50, of Westwood, has paid the funeral home bill for Nikki's mother, which will allow Nikki to retrieve a ring left there in 1978 as collateral.
![[dowdell]](/editions/1998/09/17/dowdell_600x387.jpg)