On Tuesday evening, Elizabeth Pollard, 64, went out to search for her lost cat, Pepper. Unfortunately, she hasn’t been seen since, prompting her family to alert authorities around 1 a.m. Wednesday. Police discovered her car parked near the Union Restaurant in Marguerite, Pennsylvania, about 40 miles east of Pittsburgh, where her 5-year-old granddaughter was found safe inside.
The search began early Wednesday morning, as rescuers rushed to locate Pollard. They had shifted their tactics in the face of concerns regarding the stability of a newly formed sinkhole above an abandoned coal mine in the area. “The integrity of that mine is starting to become compromised,” stated Trooper Steve Limani, cautioning the team to carefully consider their approach.
The sinkhole, roughly the size of a manhole, had not been noticed by local hunters or restaurant staff in the hours leading up to Pollard’s disappearance, which led rescuers to believe it may have formed recently.
Crews worked throughout the night in Marguerite, using bright lights to illuminate the scene amidst falling snow while searching above and below ground. They deployed a pole camera equipped with a sensitive listening device into the sinkhole, but it yielded no results. However, a camera lowered into the hole revealed what could possibly be a shoe approximately 30 feet (9 meters) beneath the surface.
“It almost feels like it opened up with her standing on top of it,” Limani mentioned, expressing concern for Pollard’s safety.
As temperatures plunged below freezing overnight, authorities utilized an excavator to dig around the site. Chief John Bacha of the Pleasant Valley Volunteer Fire Company conveyed optimism: “We are pretty confident we are in the right place. We’re hoping there is still a void she could be in.”
In a proactive move, search teams accessed an older mine and began excavating a separate entrance due to fears about the stability of the ground surrounding the sinkhole. Authorities are committed to continuing their search for Pollard until she is found.
Pollard lived in the small neighborhood directly across from where her car and granddaughter were discovered. According to Limani, the young girl fell asleep in the vehicle and awoke to find her grandmother missing. She remained in the car until two troopers arrived to help. The fate of Pepper, the lost cat, remains unknown.
In the region, sinkholes can be a frequent occurrence due to subsidence caused by past coal mining activities. A representative from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection stated that the void likely results from operations at the Marguerite Mine, which was last in service by the H.C. Frick Coke Company in 1952. The Pittsburgh coal seam lies about 20 feet (6 meters) below the surface in this location.
Once the search concludes, the Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation will assess the scene to determine whether the sinkhole was indeed caused by mine subsidence—a process that can have significant implications for the safety of the surrounding community.
