sixty-four years old At the time of her disappearance, Elizabeth Pollard was diligently searching for her cat.
24th of December, at 9:40 a.m. Pacific Time
The corpse of Elizabeth Pollard, who was searching for her cat earlier this week when she disappeared into a sinkhole, has been discovered, as reported by CBS News, which cited the Westmoreland County Coroner as the source of the information. NBC was also informed by state police that the development was verified.
Axel Hayes, Pollard’s son, said in an interview with the Associated Press that he had not yet received confirmation from the authorities.
There are currently no other details that can be provided.
Officials in Pennsylvania are continuing their search for a grandmother who is believed to have accidentally fallen into a sinkhole while searching for her cat earlier this week. The search operation that started as a search operation has now transitioned into a recovery effort.
Around five o’clock in the afternoon, Elizabeth Pollard, who lives in a community that is forty miles outside of Pittsburgh and is a coal mining town, was last seen. Her disappearance occurred on Monday, when she was looking for her cat, Pepper, according to the troopers. Pollard’s family made a call to the state police at around one in the morning on Tuesday to report that she had not returned home with them.
Around three o’clock in the morning, police discovered Pollard’s vehicle parked behind a restaurant. Inside, Pollard’s granddaughter, who was five years old, was confirmed to be safe. The pit, which was approximately the size of a manhole cover, was discovered by state troopers in the vicinity of the vehicle. They noted that the crater was most likely generated during the time that Pollard was roaming about.
“We don’t see any evidence of any time where that hole would have been there prior to deciding to walk around and look for her cat,” Trooper Steve Limani, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Police, said to KDKA in reference to the sinkhole.
The granddaughter of Pollard was unable to offer any information on the events that transpired, and she had been sitting in the vehicle for over twelve hours in temperatures below zero degrees Celsius when she was discovered by the authorities.
Initially, personnel were looking for Pollard in the hopes of locating the grandmother who had gone missing. However, as they approach their third day of the search, they have now turned their focus to attempting to retrieve Pollard from the sinkhole.
“We were at it again as soon as the sun came up,” Limani exclaimed late on Thursday morning. “We were at it again.” “Nothing yet.”
During a press conference that took place on Wednesday evening, Limani said that teams have made a remarkable and laborious effort on the ground in an attempt to find the lady, who is 64 years old, in the vicinity of an abandoned mine.
The officials are “virtually positive” that she is in the mine, but they do not think that she may still be alive, according to what he allegedly claimed.
Limani said that staff members had spent “a full two days” pumping water down an underground mine that had been abandoned for a long time at the location. They had also suctioned away dirt, rubble, and boulders in order to clear an area and look for Pollard. This was a procedure that was not an easy accomplishment to accomplish.
“(Crews) were just busting their butts, covered in mud, everything they could to move debris,” Limani said in addition. He proceeded by saying, “During the course of our day today, we have encountered some difficulties when it came to attempting to work on the mine and access to the mine, as well as the fragile state the mine is in.” He went on to say that the mine may collapse as a consequence of these difficulties.
Limani stated that crews will now begin working from dawn until dusk to dig out a large plot, which is “more than four times the size of the area that we had initially done,” in order to try and secure the mine so that crews can access it and try to go in there and recover Pollard. This information was provided due to the condition of the mine and as a safety precaution for those who are looking for Pollard.
“It’s going to be at least another day of just solid digging,” he said in addition.
In spite of the fact that technicians are pumping oxygen into the mine, Limani said that the oxygen levels inside are still lower than what one would desire “for someone to try and sustain their life.”
A camera that was dropped into the hole showed what looks to be a shoe, according to Myles Snyder, the director of communications for the PSP, who spoke with USA TODAY on Wednesday. However, despite the fact that there seems to be a connection to Pollard, there have been no indications of her whereabouts since she vanished.
“It’s now a matter of trying to find her and do right by her family,” Limani said to reporters.