The remains of a missing grandmother believed to have fallen into a Pennsylvania sinkhole while searching for her cat have been found, the coroner’s office said.
The body of 64-year-old Elizabeth Pollard has been recovered, Sean Hribal, a deputy coroner in Westmoreland County, told the Associated Press Friday.
“During the course of the the removal of dirt and sifting through things [in the search] we did find Elizabeth,” Pennsylvania State Trooper spokesman Steven Limoni said at a press conference. “We found her approximately 30 feet below the surface” at 11:05 a.m., he added, about 12 feet from the site of the original sinkhole.
“I couldn’t have been more happy for the family that we were able to find her because that was the only thing that they were concerned with after yesterday,” he said, adding the family wanted a memorial service for Pollard. Limani asked the public to give the family privacy in the wake of this “horrible tragedy.”
Pollard was looking for her cat Pepper on Monday night when she fell into a 30-feet-deep sinkhole near an old coal mine in Marguerite, Pennsylvania State Police said. Her family called police to report her missing around 1 a.m. on Tuesday.
A search for the grandmother ensued.
Police found her car parked just 20 feet from the manhole-sized opening; her 5-year-old granddaughter was found safe inside the vehicle.
By Wednesday, two days since she disappeared, the rescue mission shifted to a recovery effort, police said.
There were no signs of life, Pennsylvania State Trooper Steve Limani said, noting that oxygen levels in the sinkhole had significantly decreased.
“We feel like we failed. It’s tough”, he said Wednesday night.
Rescuers had to change their tactics — using water to remove clay and dirt from the mine — as debris crumbled into the sinkhole. “It’s got areas of where it’s started to collapse and decay and buckle a little bit. We’re afraid that we’re going to make it worse if we try to continue to plow forward with the techniques we were using,” Limani said.
Axel Hayes, Pollard’s son, told the Associated Press Friday that he had not yet heard from authorities.
Rescuers believed the sinkhole was new because locals in the area just hours before Pollard came looking for her cat hadn’t seen it. “It almost feels like it opened up with her standing on top of it,” Limani said.
It’s not immediately clear what happened to Pepper.
