A Pennsylvania grandmother who fell into a massive sinkhole while searching for her cat has been found dead after days of searching.
Elizabeth Pollard, 64, was reported missing around 1 a.m. on December 3, a day after she was last seen.
Concerned family members said they believe she disappeared while searching for her cat, Pepper, in Unity Township in Westmoreland County.
Troopers soon found her car parked behind Monday’s Union Restaurant, with her five-year-old granddaughter still inside, just over an hour after the alarm went off.
A sinkhole was then located just a few feet away, prompting more than 100 people to search for Pollard in the abandoned mine.
For the past four days, crews have been digging in the area to find Pollard, despite losing hope every day.
Earlier on Friday, Westmoreland County Deputy Coroner Sean Hribal announced that Pollard’s body had been found.
After discovering her body, state trooper Steve Limani told police Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that there was widespread relief among the search team.
Elizabeth Pollard, 64, a Pennsylvania grandmother who fell through a massive sinkhole while searching for her cat, has been found dead after days of searching
Crews had been digging in the area for the past four days to find Pollard
“We were running out of options, time and resources,” Limani told the newspaper. “I started to worry we wouldn’t find her.”
On Thursday, Limani said the sinkhole had become dangerous and could potentially shift the bottom, leading to another subsidence of the mine.
He added that the water that engineers and experts have used to remove dirt from the mine is also causing more damage.
“We have to be very careful with the water problems we have experienced,” he said, adding that experts said the mine was already in poor condition before the horrific accident.
‘We continue. We’re not stopping. We might just have to shift gears, so it might be a little slower than people might think,” he said at the time.
Pollard’s young granddaughter was unharmed and is now back with her parents, despite spending nearly 12 hours in sub-zero temperatures.
“She was just a five-year-old girl sitting in the car waiting for her grandmother to come back,” Limani said.
The sinkhole is similar to the size of a manhole on the surface, but becomes much wider underground, posing greater challenges to search efforts.
On Thursday, officials said the sinkhole had become dangerous and could potentially shift the bottom
After discovering her body, State Police Trooper Steve Limani said there was great relief among the search team
The area is littered with old coal mines, leading troopers to believe these were most likely created when Pollard was walking around.
Rescuers are working to find Pollard overnight. They used cameras and listening devices dropped into the hole
Troopers found Pollard’s car parked behind a restaurant with her five-year-old granddaughter still inside
The area is dotted with old coal mines, which led troopers to believe it wasn’t there before Pollard went looking for Pepper and most likely was created when she was walking around.
Officers noted she may have gone missing as early as 5 p.m. – the last time she was seen by customers at the restaurant.
An initial look into the hole involved the use of a ladder and a harness, but there were no signs of Pollard.
“You couldn’t even get close enough to the hole because of the way it was undermined,” John Bacha, chief of the Pleasant Valley Volunteer Fire Company, told CNN.
The massive search that followed involved cameras and listening devices being dropped into the hole, and more than a hundred people working together to search for the missing grandmother.