Crews find body of missing Pennsylvania grandmother at bottom of sinkhole

Laura Esposito, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Dec 6, 2024

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PITTSBURGH — After four days of searching, crews found the body of a missing Westmoreland County woman who fell into a sinkhole.

State police Trooper Steve Limani confirmed around 11:20 a.m. Friday that crews had finally tunneled to the area in an abandoned mine in Unity Township where Elizabeth Pollard’s body was found.

Search crews had been working at the site along Marguerite Road near Monday’s Union Restaurant for four days trying to find the 64-year-old grandmother.

Trooper Limani said the entire search team was feeling "a massive amount of relief" after locating Ms. Pollard.

A trained search dog and its handler search through dirt on Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, in Unity Township in Westmorland County. The dirt is from a sinkhole that police believe 64-year-old Elizabeth Pollard fell into earlier this week.

Authorities make progress reaching area where missing Westmoreland County woman fell into sinkhole

"We were running out of options, time, and resources," he said. "I was getting worried we weren't gonna find her."

Family members, including Ms. Pollard's husband and son, Axel, were standing steps away from the sinkhole site the moment she was found.

Thursday afternoon, they said in a statement that they were holding out hope Ms. Pollard was found alive. Trooper Limani said he spoke with them Friday morning, and they had come to terms with the "possible outcomes." They, too, were relieved she was recovered, he said.

Ms. Pollard was last seen Monday evening headed into a wooded area near the restaurant while searching for her missing cat, Pepper. Her family reported her missing around 1 a.m. on Tuesday, and her car was found two hours later with her 5-year-old granddaughter inside, scared but unhurt.

Pepper's whereabouts are unknown and police said there have been no sightings of the cat in the area.

About 20 feet from Ms. Pollard’s car was a sinkhole with an opening about the size of a street manhole cover, which authorities suspect opened up as she walked across the ground.

The sinkhole that Ms. Pollard fell through leads to the Marguerite Mine, which was developed, mined and then abandoned by the H.C. Frick Coke Co. by the middle of the last century. Some 20 feet below the surface, the mine used to feed coal to coke ovens and then steel mills in Pittsburgh and across the eastern U.S.

State Police and search and rescue crews work around a sinkhole that is linked to an abandoned mine in Unity Township in Westmorland County Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, part of an ongoing search for 64-year-old Elizabeth Pollard. Police believe she fell into the hole while searching for her missing cat. Her 5-year-old granddaughter was with her and found in Ms. Pollard’s car near the hole.

Authorities don't expect to find woman in Westmoreland County sinkhole alive as they shift to recovery effort

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