Emergency crews worked through snowfall and freezing temperatures early Wednesday searching for a 64-year-old woman who apparently fell into a sinkhole that opened above an abandoned coal mine while looking for her lost cat.
Elizabeth Pollard disappeared Monday evening while searching for her cat, Pepper. Her car was found parked near Monday’s Union Restaurant with her 5-year-old granddaughter safely inside, about 40 miles east of Pittsburgh. “The young girl nodded off in the car and woke up. Grandma never came back,” State Police Trooper Steve Limani told reporters.
Rescuers lowered cameras and sensitive listening devices into the manhole-sized opening, detecting what appeared to be a shoe approximately 30 feet below ground. “It almost feels like it opened up with her standing on top of it,” Limani said, noting the hole hadn’t been seen by hunters and restaurant workers in the area hours before Pollard’s disappearance.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection linked the void to the Marguerite Mine, last operated by H.C. Frick Coke Company in 1952, with the Pittsburgh coal seam about 20 feet below surface. Crews dug a separate entrance after concerns about ground stability near the sinkhole.
“The integrity of that mine is starting to become compromised,” Limani said as teams reassessed tactics to avoid endangering rescuers. Pleasant Valley Volunteer Fire Company Chief John Bacha remained hopeful, telling Triblive, “We are pretty confident we are in the right place. We’re hoping there is still a void she could be in.”
