Search for missing grandma who may have fallen in sinkhole turns into recovery effort
Editor's note: Officials say the woman has been found dead. Click here for the latest development.
The search for a grandmother who apparently fell into a sinkhole while looking for her cat earlier this week in a coal mine town about 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh is now a recovery mission, state officials announced.
The hunt for Elizabeth Pollard entered day three Thursday, Pennsylvania State Police spokesperson Trooper Steve Limani told USA TODAY.
"We were at it again as soon as the sun came up," Limani said late Thursday morning, referencing attempts by crews to locate the 64-year-old woman who vanished Monday night. "Nothing yet."
During a news conference Wednesday night, Limani said crews have performed an impressive, grueling effort on the ground attempting to locate Pollard in an area around an abandoned mine.
"It’s now a matter of trying to find her and do right by her family,” Limani said, adding there have been no signs of life since she disappeared.
The defunct mine is in Marguerite, an unincorporated community and coal town in Westmoreland County.
How dangerous are sinkholes? What to know amid search for missing Pa. woman
Crews search for missing grandma at abandoned mine
Limani said crews had worked "a full two days" pumping water through a long-abandoned underground mine at the site suctioning out dirt, debris and rocks to clear an area and search for Pollard – a process Limani compared to trying to pull a boulder out of a house of stacked cards.
"(Crews) were just busting their butts, covered in mud, everything they could to move debris," Limani said during Wednesday's press conference.
"During the course of our day today, we've experienced some difficulty when it came to trying to work on the mine and access to the mine and the fragile state the mine is in," Limani said, adding there is a good chance the mine may collapse.
Troopers met with her family Wednesday night to update them on the search, Limani said.
Crews had to switch gears due to unstable mine
At the risk of the safety of people who are in there, the compromised condition of the mine, and the potential for inclement incoming weather including snow, Limani said, crews have had to switch gears.
The trooper said crews will now work dawn until dusk to dig out a large plot, "more than four times the size of the area that we had originally done, to try and secure the mine so crews can access it to try and go in there and recover her. It’s going to be at least another day of just solid digging.”
Despite crews pumping oxygen into the mine, Limani said oxygen levels remain lower than what someone would want inside "for someone to try and sustain their life."
Pleasant Unity Fire Chief John Bacha said in a Wednesday news conference, Bacha said the danger became apparent around 3 a.m. Wednesday, and the roof of the mine had collapsed in several places making it unstable.
Troopers 'virtually positive' Elizabeth Pollard fell into sinkhole
Limani said troopers are "virtually positive" Pollard fell into the sinkhole near Monday's Union Restaurant in Unity Township.
On Wednesday, PSP Communications Director Myles Snyder told USA TODAY a camera lowered into the hole revealed what appears to be a shoe.
Pollard was last seen about 5 p.m. searching for her cat, Pepper, troopers said. Pollard's family contacted state police at around 1 a.m. Tuesday morning to report that she had not come home.
Police found Pollard's car behind the restaurant around 3 a.m. with her 5-year-old granddaughter safe inside, the agency reported. State troopers found a sinkhole in the area near the car nearly the size of a manhole cover.
Troopers have said the sinkhole was most likely created during the time Pollard was walking around.
"We don't see any evidence of any time where that hole would have been there prior to deciding to walk around and look for her cat," Limani told KDKA on Tuesday.
Missing man is registered sex offender: Heartwarming story of man missing 25 years grows darker
What is a sinkhole?
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, a sinkhole is a hole in the ground that opens up when there is no external surface drainage. When water builds up, it drains into the subsurface and dissolves the sediment below, creating caverns until the ground surface itself collapses.
They can form from natural or manmade causes, according to Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection. They also can crop up after extreme weather.
In the U.S., they're most common in these states: Florida, Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Pennsylvania, according to the American Geosciences Institute.
Pollard's granddaughter unable to provide details about what happened
Pollard's granddaughter, who’d been in the car for almost 12 hours in freezing temperatures, was found unharmed, troopers said.
The girl, now safe with her parents, was unable to give law enforcement any details about what happened.
“She was just a 5-year-old girl that was waiting in the car for her grandmother to come back,” Limani said.
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
Contributing: Jeanine Santucci and James Powel
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Search for missing grandma Elizabeth Pollard turns to recovery effort
