In this episode of KARAMO, host Karamo interviews Keneshia, a woman who has spent years searching for her biological family after discovering that the woman who raised her may not be her mother. Keneshia recounts how a routine visit to a social‑services office sparked the revelation that two different birth documents listed two different mothers, prompting a deep emotional crisis. She describes a childhood marked by neglect, frequent moves, and a lack of affection from the aunt who raised her. Using the name change on social media, Keneshia connects with an aunt who confirms she was kidnapped as a child and that her biological mother, Debora (also referred to as DeBarra), had other children. The episode introduces Taisha, a potential sister, who confirms she grew up with grandparents and knew about siblings. Both Keneshia and Taisha agree to on‑stage DNA testing. The results confirm that Taisha is Keneshia’s biological mother’s daughter, establishing them as sisters, and that Keneshia’s biological mother is DeBarra. The emotional climax is the moment the truth is revealed, providing closure, validation of Keneshia’s lifelong gut feeling, and a hopeful path toward reconnecting with other siblings and redefining her children’s legacy. The conversation is conversational, empathetic, and moves from confusion and pain to hopeful resolution.
Chapters
Tell me, how did you find out that the woman who raised you might not be your mother?
So I was taking my son, my middle child, to disability to get some assistance for him. And she started asking me questions about my name. When did I change it? You know, what age? What, you know, time? And I'm like—
Yeah, what you talking about? I ain't change my name. Yeah.
Right, I'm like, I've never changed my name. And she's like, "Well, you know, maybe your mom did." And I'm like, you know, so I said, "Well, what name do you have?" You know, I asked her what name did she have. And she said, "Keneshia." And I said, "Oh, okay." I wrote it down. I said, "Well, what name do you have for my mom?" And she's like, "Well, you don't know who your mom is?" And so I tried to go like into the story of that I've been looking for my family and the person that I know as my mom is not my mom. And she's like, "No." I can't give you any more information out of this file.
Yeah.
She's like telling me to get out of her office and stuff.
How she gonna be rude like that? You opened it up, girl. Like I was in here just trying to get my little service. You the one who telling me this not your name. You know what I mean? And now I'm asking questions and you mad at me?
Yeah. Like. You know, I think she was a little worried that she was giving me information.
I get it, I understand. I worked in social services, but still don't open up the can of worms if you ain't ready to like at least, at least guide and direct you to getting your answers. Because if I was in that situation, I said too much, I'd have been like, hold on, sit here, girl. Let me go find somebody. We gonna figure out how to get you the information you need versus saying, get out my office. You know what I'm saying?
Yeah, she was telling me to just come back.
Yeah.
You know, come back when you have all your information together.
Yeah.
And we'll help you. And I'm like, please, you know, now I'm crying. I'm upset.
Of course, of course you are.
I'm like, please just gimme the name you have for the mom.
Yeah.
So she gave it to me and she was like, you didn't get this from me.
Okay. Oh, so she did finally help.
And I went out the office.
Yeah, you ran out. Okay. So you sent two different documents that have two different mothers listed for you. I wanna take a look at that.
Yes.
So this is the first document. It's upon reading and filing the affidavit of the mother and natural guardian of the infant Kaneesha. And so this is one of the documents.
Yes, so in this one, this is a document when I got placed into the system.
Uh-huh.
And on it, it says, "[MASKED] is my mother." And then on this one it says, "Debarra is my mother." And both of them have different names for mother, different names for me. So I don't know what's what.
Which is what. Yes, I understand.
Yeah.
How did you feel when you found that out?
Oh God, just a ball of emotions. Confused, a little bit relieved, a little bit, Sad, happy, I've always felt something, you know, and I always felt like wasn't, you know.
So you did have doubts in the past that this might not be your mother?
Oh, absolutely.
What caused those doubts?
Absolutely. I always had a gut feeling, but the way she treated me was telling, very telling.
So tell me a little bit about your childhood.
Oh.
What was it like?
I was shuffled around a lot, moved from place to place. Never any love or caring in the household for me. They never shopped for me. I never went to the doctor. I barely ate.
Sounds like neglect.
No, no, very much so. No type of parenting. You know, I have children. I tell them I love them all the time. I've never heard that from her. She's never hugged me. Just nothing. Just nothing that a parent would do.
Yeah. And this woman we're talking about, I just wanna be clear, the woman who raised you is your auntie?
Yes.
And so you never felt that from her or anybody that was around you?
No.
And did you contact the woman you found in the paperwork?
Well—
Debora?
No, because I didn't know how to.
Okay.
I started doing like a lot of research. And so when I did get the paperwork, One of the things I did is on social media, I changed my name. Yeah, I changed it from the name I was using my whole life to [MASKED], which was on the paper and the name that the lady gave me.
Yeah, just in case somebody was searching for you.
Absolutely.
That would come up.
Absolutely. And sure enough, somebody contacted me and said she was my aunt. And she started telling me all this stuff about when I was younger and how the lady had taken me.
Oh, so she told you that she took you? Yes. Like you were kidnapped?
Yes.
Wow.
Yes, changed my name and you know, things were matching up. I was in North Carolina and that's where she had taken me. I didn't know because I was younger. Yeah. But she had taken me there. I thought I was born there. She gave me a birth certificate that said that and she just started telling me a whole lot of information. I had siblings and that I had, family that was nearby where I lived.
Wow.
Just a lot of stuff.
What was that moment like for you, for this woman to tell you, a stranger say that, "Hey, no, this is your real mother and that you were kidnapped." It wasn't real, you know? Yeah, here you go, love. Here you go, my love. Yeah.
I always knew something was wrong.
Yeah.
But I never knew who. And so when she told me that, it kinda made sense because this lady never act like she was my mother. But then I thought about it like, well, why didn't my mother come for me? And she said she was supposed to raise me. She said the lady disappeared with me. And I just asked a lot of questions and wanted to know like, well, Why didn't you guys come and get me?
Yeah, why'd you search for me?
You know, I went through the system. I went from person to person. Nobody was there. Nobody who cared, you know?
Yeah, yeah. And what was her response?
She said that, you know, they were looking for me, but they were looking for.
Got it.
I lived in North Carolina, I guess from young until I was 6 years old. And then I lived with from 6 to 11.
Got it.
And then I was put into the system.
Okay.
No, in a different place. Okay. From North Carolina then to New York.
Got it, okay. So if they were trying to search for you, you're in different states, different last name.
Yep.
Okay.
And that's what they said, they looked for me. I don't know.
So when did you find out Debora had a daughter?
When she contacted me through Facebook, the aunt.
Yeah.
Yeah, she said that you have siblings, so it's 6 of us, but I only know the sibling that's here. Yeah, I only know her.
Did you ever meet Dabara?
Yeah.
You did, and what was that like?
It didn't really feel like, you know, I was very happy 'cause I had been looking, but it didn't really feel like a reunion like I thought it would be. You know?
What was it like?
It seemed like she didn't care. I started, you know, like asking her questions like, what happened? Why weren't you here with me? And she was like, you know, you need to get over these things. You're grown now. And you know, and I asked her like if she looked for me, if she was my mom, why she didn't look for me? And she said she did. She never told to take me, but it just didn't seem like she cared.
Yeah.
You know, and I tried to talk with her and have a relationship with her, but it just didn't seem like she wanted that.
Yeah, got it.
Yeah.
Did she ever file a missing person report? No. She did not?
Mm-mm.
Why didn't she file one? Did she say?
I don't know. You know, I asked, but she said not really like a clear answer. She kind of said like, you know, in those days, and she started telling me about her parents and she had to do what they said. And you know, she didn't really answer me, to be honest.
Do you still talk to the woman who raised you? No. Not at all?
No.
Okay. When was the last time you talked to her?
Back in 2010 when I started collecting all this information.
That's when.
I confronted her.
And what'd she say when you confronted her?
She said I was crazy and that I've always stirred up problems. I've always stirred up trouble. And you know, she wasn't gonna deal with this and she kind of dismissed it and walked outta my house.
So the woman here today, Taisha, who's your potential sister, have you ever met her?
Yes.
You have met her. And what was that like?
It was great.
Yeah.
She welcomed me.
Yeah.
She supported me. I asked DeBarra to take a test, she said no, but Tyisha said yes.
Okay.
Yeah.
Was she raised by DeBarra?
No.
What do these DNA results mean to you?
Everything.
Yeah.
Everything. Closure, a step towards healing.
Yeah, yeah.
Knowing who I am.
Yes.
I've been looking for years for my family 'cause I knew wasn't. My kids, they carry her name. I got married, I was able to change my name, but because that's who I was told I was, I named my children after her, you know? And I don't want that. I want them to carry my name, my blood, my legacy, not somebody who mistreated me and doesn't care, you know?
[Speaker:KARAMO] Yeah. Well, I wanna meet your potential sister, Taisha. So everyone, please welcome Taisha to the show. So did you know your alleged mother had another child?
Yes, I did.
You did know?
I knew from the time I was young that I had other siblings.
Yeah.
I knew, I had a picture of Kaneesha when we were little. We were actually sitting on the lady's step in the picture.
Oh wow, okay.
And I had different information from different people in my family telling me that I had siblings. From my mother.
So the fact that y'all was sitting on her fucking step in that photo, that's interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah. So Kenesha said you didn't grow up with your mother, did you?
No, I didn't. I grew up with my grandparents. My father's parents actually took care of me.
Got it, got it.
My grandmother was a nurse and my grandfather was a doctor. They took great care of me.
Yes, great job for them. Did Dabara ever try to come around? Did she ever try to contact you?
I saw my mother maybe twice growing up. I think I saw her once in elementary school and then I think it was just before I graduated from high school probably was the next time that I saw her.
Well, what did she ever tell you about Kaneesha?
She just told me that I had some other siblings and that she didn't have any of 'em. Basically, she was young at the time that she got pregnant with me. She was only 16, so. They are from the old school. And if anybody knows the old school, what happens in the house stays in the house. So basically that's what they believed. So my mother didn't really talk to anybody about anything that happened when she was young.
This makes so much more sense to me about her behavior.
Yeah.
It makes some more sense. No excuse, no excuse for the meeting you had because as a child you deserve the sort of love and interaction that is it's going to seem like I missed you. But I can also, from her perspective, without even talking to her, from what the story you're telling me, of saying like, if my parents didn't support me and my child is taken, I have to figure out how to disassociate quickly so that I don't go crazy. I have to learn how to disassociate and compartmentalize so that I can feel at least some type of safety. So that makes sense to me now. Do you believe Kenesha is your sister?
Oh yes, I definitely believe Kenesha is my sister. We look alike, we act alike, we have a whole bunch of differences. Y'all see it. We definitely sister, no question.
Yeah, how do we feel if, because I always have to ask this, how do we feel if you don't share the same mother?
We just don't share the same mother. She's still my sister regardless. This will always be my best friend.
So I'm assuming what you want to happen today is that this is your sister?
Oh yes, I definitely wanted to say that this is my sister.
When you're, when Dibara refused to come on the show, how did that make you feel?
Well, it upset me that she didn't wanna come and help my sister basically, but I asked her if she could at least take the test so that we could get the answers that we needed and she agreed to do that. So I was happy that she did that.
That's a beautiful thing. Well, it is time to unlock the DNA truth because your alleged mother, even though she refused to come on the show, we also tested you as well.
Yes.
For maternity as well.
Yes.
Well, I think it's time to unlock the DNA truth. All right. Taisha, we're gonna go ahead and start with you. You were raised in a household where this was confirmed that this was your mom. Your mother as well.
All right.
Here you go.
Thank you.
Wow.
I don't know if I want—
is it possible for us to open them together?
Of course you can. Anything that's gonna make you feel comfortable.
Do you feel better opening them together at the same time?
Yeah.
Okay.
Here you go. This is your truth to open.
Yeah.
You ready, baby? All right, this says Taisha Devera is your biological mother.
What does yours say?
It says Kenisha Zamora is your biological mother. I told you. I told you, baby. I told you.
How does it feel to finally have your answers, to know the truth?
It feels great.
Yes.
I know that's right.
But it feels good.
Now we just have to find our other siblings.
I have facts now.
You have facts.
You know, and not just somebody saying it is.
Yeah.
Or you look like.
Yeah. And it also confirms that the things that you felt as a child, you weren't just making up in your mind.
And I wasn't crazy.
You weren't crazy.
Like everybody called me.
You weren't crazy.
I knew it was something wrong.
Yeah. I wrote that down immediately on my card 'cause I was like, whatever this comes out, I know people in your childhood made you feel some sort of way. And if this lesson has taught you anything, is that you can always trust your gut. 'Cause you know. You've always known, you've always felt, you've always fought for yourself, and you've always searched for the truth. That is a person of who you are. And that is a beautiful thing. And I'm so happy that you got your answers. I'm so happy for you.
Thank you.
And I'm also happy that now your children don't have to share the name of this woman who had no business taking you in the first place.
I was looking for my baby.
Is your baby in here? My daughter's here. Your daughter's here?
