McDowell was from upstate New York, where her father had been the chief of police for the city of Saratoga Springs. She began her detective career as a "floater" working temporary assignments in whichever precinct was shorthanded until receiving permanent assignment to the 15th Precinct. Soon after her arrival, Lieutenant Arthur Fancy was promoted to captain, and McDowell did not hit it off with his intended replacement, Susan Dalto. Upon asking if it was too late for her transfer out of the 15th Precinct, Fancy counseled her to stay, so that she didn't develop a reputation as someone who couldn't get along with her superiors. Fancy ultimately solved the problem by engineering Dalto's transfer out; her replacement was Lieutenant Tony Rodriguez, with whom McDowell got along well. McDowell partnered first with Diane Russell, and later with Rita Ortiz. McDowell dealt with some dysfunction in her family; she had a baby when she was 16, and her parents insisted she givethe girl up for adoption. She later contacted her daughter, by then a teenager, by arranging a fake arrest for smoking marijuana; the attempted reunion was unsuccessful. McDowell was told by her doctors that she could not become pregnant again; still desiring to be a parent, she began to helpAndy Sipowicz by babysitting his son Theo. McDowell also had a sister, Michelle, who was in an abusive relationship; after several unsuccessful efforts by McDowell and her co-workers to stop the abuse, Michelle's boyfriend Frank killed her. McDowell ended up as the adoptive parent of her sister's child, after successfully fighting Frank's parents for custody. After McDowell became the adoptive mother of her niece, her relationship with Andy continued to blossom; soon afterwards, McDowell became pregnant, despite her previous medical prognosis. Despite their age difference, they decided to marry, and she gave birth to a son, Matthew. After giving birth, McDowell left work to stay at home and raise the three children in the blended family she and Sipowicz had created. She is referred to several times during the rest of the series, usually as Sipowicz is talking to her on the phone while he's at work.
