Meridian police search for missing 3-year-old

By Staff
staff and wire reports
Aug. 29, 2003
Meridian police continued Thursday to search for a 3-year-old after the girl's mother told New York authorities she abandoned her daughter in a wooded area.
Tina Funderburk told authorities she was riding a Greyhound bus from her home in New York to Texas when the bus stopped in Meridian. She said she had her 3-year-old daughter, Reina Russell, and her 1-year-old son with her on the trip.
When the bus stopped in Meridian, Funderburk told police she walked to a wooded area with her daughter and left the child there. Police aren't certain when or where the child was abandoned.
Funderburk also hasn't revealed why she allegedly abandoned her daughter.