OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
2:21pm – Friday, December 6, 2024
A 64-year-old woman who fell into a three-story deep sinkhole in western Pennsylvania has been sadly found dead after authorities searched for several days.
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Elizabeth Pollard, 64, drove to the Union Restaurant in Margaret, a community in Westmoreland County about 40 miles east of Pittsburgh, on Monday, Dec. 2.n.d.2024, around 5 p.m.
Pollard was a cat lover and drove to the restaurant around 5 p.m. Monday to look for his cat, Pepper, said his son, Axel Hayes.
Pollard often cared for her 5-year-old granddaughter, driving herself and the girl around town in her black Chevrolet Equinox while the girl's mother was at work.
Pollard drove down the hill from his home to the restaurant's parking lot. The report does not say why she believed her cat was roaming this particular location.
So she asked several men who introduced themselves if they had seen Pepper.
Police believe she may have accidentally stepped directly into a patch of grass that barely covered the giant sinkhole, a wide hole in the ground “left by large-scale coal mining that ceased in the early 1950s.” I hypothesize that there is.
Temperatures in the region dropped to below freezing on Monday night, the news agency said. NBC News. Meanwhile, Pollard's 5-year-old granddaughter waited in the Equinox restaurant parking lot for her to return and eventually fell asleep. The fact that the child did not get out of the car and walk less than 20 feet to the sinkhole to look for his grandmother is considered extremely lucky by investigators.
Hayes said the girl's mother called 911 shortly afterward and reported both girls missing around 1 a.m., about eight hours after Pollard was last seen.
Two hours later, state police found the car and quickly discovered the sinkhole. Police said neither the man Pollard spoke to nor the staff who frequented the shuttered restaurant on Monday noticed it.
“The opening was about the size of a sewer manhole cover and was surrounded by grass, leading authorities to believe it was a new hole. Her own weight may have caused it to open right below. It could just be that it was difficult to see because of the dusk.” NBC10-Philadelphia.
Two police officers knocked on the car window to wake the 5-year-old and take him back to his mother. Police say she is now home peacefully with her family.
Searchers initially tried unsuccessfully to look down for any signs of Pollard, and the fire chief was soon secured with a ladder in case he had to scramble to the ground.
The entire search operation was deemed extremely dangerous, so access to the sinkhole rim was severely restricted and intensively monitored.
The next day, the local government, Unity Township, approved emergency spending to purchase equipment for dangerous underground searches. Representatives from states with knowledge of closed mines were consulted.
Hoping she was still alive, the team began pumping oxygen into the hole. Through intricate old mine tunnels, they widened the hole in an attempt to reach the spot where they thought she fell.
Excavation became a tedious and frustrating task. The team struggled to extract large amounts of rock and soil while attempting to soften the ground with water. The shaft buckled in some places and collapsed in others. Electronic surveillance picked up no sound, and a camera dropped into the hole found only one pair of shoes.
To figure out the location of the routes, which appear to intersect directly beneath the sinkhole opening, the team looked back at maps from nearly a century ago.
By Wednesday, authorities had concluded that Pollard's survival in what could have been a catastrophic plunge into the abyss was doubtful. Despite efforts to bring in fresh air, oxygen levels in the hole remained dangerously low. Furthermore, when the team investigated possible locations for Pollard, there was no trace of her.
The dangerous rescue attempt, which made matters worse, was quickly called off and the focus shifted from rescuing Pollard to recovering his body.
They informed her family that she was likely deceased and provided detailed instructions on how to recover her body.
After what appeared to be a futile search, Hayes told police: “I'd rather no one get hurt.”
Hayes, his wife and father were at Pollard's home by Thursday morning, waiting for an update from police. They were praying for a miracle, hoping that she would miraculously survive.
Hayes said Pepper the cat hasn't appeared yet.
“The cat was definitely attached to her,” Hayes said. “And he's not going to leave until he finds her.”
State police announced Friday that they had finally found Pollard's body. More detailed information is expected to be provided at the afternoon press conference.
Mr. Pollard, 64, has lived most of his adult life in Unity Township, but grew up about 12 miles away in Jeannette. She worked at Walmart for more than 10 years and was considered a kind and cheerful person. She and her husband of almost 40 years, Kenny, previously adopted and raised two boys in their two-story home on Doss Drive.
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