Pa. Coroner’s Office Believes They’ve Located Body of Missing Woman who Fell into Sinkhole
The Westmoreland County Coroner’s Office believes it has located the body of 64-year-old Elizabeth Pollard, who went missing four days ago while searching for her lost pet near a sinkhole above an abandoned coal mine. Investigators sent a coroner to Unity Township on Friday morning after searchers found the remains of Pollard’s body.
State police Trooper Steve Limani described the relief among the search team, saying, "We were running out of options, time and resources… I was getting worried we weren’t gonna find her." Pollard’s son, Axel Hayes, planned to call his father, Kenny Pollard, to inform him of the discovery.
Pollard, who was last seen on Monday evening searching for her cat Pepper near a restaurant in Marguerite, was reported missing by her family around 1 am on Tuesday. The search focused on a sinkhole with a manhole-sized surface gap that may have only recently opened up, above where coal was mined until about 70 years ago.
The effort to find Pollard included using a pole camera with a sensitive listening device, as well as removing a massive amount of soil and rock to try to reach the area where they believed she fell into the 30-foot-deep chasm.
