Body of Missing Grandmother Is Found in Sinkhole

UPDATE Dec 6, 2024 11:59 AM CST

Authorities have found the body of a woman who fell into a sinkhole in Pennsylvania earlier this week. Searchers on Friday found the remains of 64-year-old Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared on Monday while looking for her cat in the neighborhood. "We're relieved to have found her to provide closure to the family," Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Adam Reed said in an email to USA Today.

Dec 5, 2024 1:00 AM CST

Police say there is no sign of life in the sinkhole where a Pennsylvania grandmother is believed to have fallen while searching for a lost cat. "Unless it's a miracle, most likely this is a recovery," a state police trooper said Wednesday, confirming authorities' belief that Elizabeth Pollard, 64, probably did not survive. The hole is at least 30 feet deep and police say there are diminishing oxygen levels inside, NBC News reports. And sound-monitoring equipment being used in the search has not picked up any sounds, CNN reports. Cameras previously located a shoe in the sinkhole, a long-abandoned mine where conditions had deteriorated so much by Wednesday night that authorities had to change their search methods for safety reasons.

A relative called police around 1am Tuesday to report that Pollard and her 5-year-old granddaughter left around 5pm to go look for the missing cat, but never returned. Police found the little girl inside Pollard's car, which was parked near a restaurant and the fresh sinkhole. By that point, the child had been in the car, amid below-freezing temperatures, for 12 hours. "She was just a 5-year-old girl that was waiting in the car for her grandmother to come back," and could not give any details about what happened, the trooper says. She has since been reunited with her parents. Authorities believe the sinkhole, which is about the size of a manhole at the top but much wider underground, likely appeared Monday. "There is a very thin layer of earth, and to be honest with you, it appears to be mostly just grass interwoven where she had stepped," the trooper says. (More Pennsylvania stories.)