The Pennsylvania grandmother who fell through a massive sinkhole while searching for her cat is no longer expected to be alive, authorities announced Wednesday as they said they were changing their efforts from a “rescue mission” to a ‘recovery mission’.
Elizabeth Pollard, 64, was reported missing around 1 a.m. Tuesday by concerned family members, who believed she had disappeared while searching for her cat, Pepper, in Unity Township, Westmoreland County.
Troopers found her car parked behind the Union Restaurant Monday, 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.
But over the course of the past two days, there have been no signs of life, Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Steve Limani said at a news conference Wednesday evening: according to the New York Times.
“Unless it’s a miracle, this is most likely a recovery,” he announced as conditions in the sinkhole began to deteriorate.
Rescuers spent all day Wednesday pumping water through a long-abandoned mine beneath the sinkhole to try to clear the debris and then remove it with a vacuum in an effort to open the sinkhole further so they could gain access the mine, Limani said.
He compared the process to trying to pull a boulder out of a house of cards, CNN reports.
Elizabeth Pollard, 64, is not expected to be alive after she fell through a huge sinkhole while looking for her cat
Her family reported her missing around 1 a.m. when police found her car behind the Union Restaurant on Monday, with her five-year-old granddaughter still inside, just over an hour after the alarm went off. (Pictured: the sinkhole)
As rescuers worked, the sinkhole began to collapse and workers on site became “covered in mud from head to toe,” leaving them “definitely in danger” as they tried to find Pollard.
“There are areas… where it’s starting to collapse and decay and buckle a little bit,” Limani explained of the sinkhole.
“We are afraid that if we continue with the techniques we have been using, we will make things worse,” he said on Wednesday.
He also said oxygen levels in the sinkhole “became lower than what you would want if someone were trying to sustain their life.”
Fortunately, 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.
It is believed that Pollard accidentally formed the massive sinkhole while walking around looking for her feline companion.
Officers noted that she may have gone missing as early as 5 p.m. – the last time she was seen by customers at the restaurant while they were looking for Pepper.
Rescuers are working to find Pollard overnight. They used cameras and listening devices dropped into the hole
On Wednesday, Pennsylvania State Police trooper Steve Limani (pictured) said the sinkhole had become dangerous
During an initial search, rescuers used a ladder and a harness but found 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 dropped into the hole, and more than a hundred people working together at one point to search for the missing grandmother.
But the tools and technology used in the search picked up no sounds or images of Pollard, except for one camera that captured what appeared to be a shoe.
“Let’s just say it’s a modern shoe, not something you’d find in a coal mine in Marguerite in 1940,” Bacha added.
Respondents now say they are “just trying to find her and do right by her family.”
“We hope that everyone keeps their families in their prayers, that this ultimately becomes a rescue mission and that we will continue to conduct ourselves that way,” Limani said.
Operations are now expected to continue on Thursday morning as mine clearance experts were called in to assist with safety measures.