The body of a woman who had been missing for four days after falling into a sinkhole was recovered on Friday, according to a statement from a spokesperson for state police.
Trooper Steve Limani confirmed that 64-year-old Elizabeth Pollard’s remains were taken to the Westmoreland County Coroner’s Office for an autopsy. Rescuers utilized heavy machinery to retrieve her from the depths of the sinkhole, which was approximately 30 feet deep. Pollard was located around 11 a.m., roughly 12 feet away from the sinkhole’s opening. Initial investigations suggest she may have fallen onto a conical heap of debris produced by a collapsing mine before rolling southwest, leading to the final location of her body.
Limani remarked that the autopsy results could provide further insight into whether she sustained fatal injuries from the fall.
The search for Pollard began after she was last seen Monday evening, as she searched for her cat near a restaurant located half a mile from her residence in Marguerite. Her son, Axel Hayes, shared that a state trooper informed the family of the grim discovery.
“I was hoping for the best, I really was,” Hayes commented during a phone interview. “I was hoping she was still alive, maybe in a coma or something. I wasn’t expecting all of this.”
Mike O’Barto, chair of the Unity Township Board of Supervisors, expressed the community’s sorrow, emphasizing the tight-knit nature of the area, which consists of several coal mining towns, including Marguerite.
“When people suffer, we all suffer. The people of Unity Township are sad today,” O’Barto stated.
Pollard’s family reported her missing at around 1 a.m. on Tuesday as the temperatures dipped below freezing. The focus of search efforts was a sinkhole that initially appeared as a small gap, likely formed in an area where coal mining had ceased nearly 70 years ago. Individuals in the area just before her disappearance did not notice the sinkhole, according to police reports.
Officials found Pollard’s vehicle parked about 20 feet from the sinkhole, with her 5-year-old granddaughter inside. Pollard’s cat, Pepper, has yet to be located, Hayes mentioned.
The comprehensive search, which lasted around 80 hours, included the use of a pole camera equipped with a sensitive listening device dropped into the hole, yielding no results. Search crews also removed a substantial amount of earth and rock to access the spot where Pollard was believed to have fallen into the 30-foot deep chasm.
Pollard had roots in Jeanette, approximately 12 miles from Unity Township, where she had spent a significant part of her adult life. Over the years, she had worked at Walmart and had been married for more than four decades.
