Searchers think they have found missing Western Pa. woman last seen near sinkhole

A Pennsylvania coroner’s office said Friday that investigators believe they have located the body of a woman who was last seen four days earlier near a sinkhole above a shuttered coal mine.

Sean Hribal, a deputy coroner in Westmoreland County, said searchers believe they have found the remains of 64-year-old Elizabeth Pollard.

A coroner was dispatched by law enforcement shortly after 11 a.m. to Unity Township, where crews have been excavating the abandoned coal mine in an effort to locate Pollard.

State police Trooper Steve Limani told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that there was massive relief among the search team that Pollard had been found.

“We were running out of options, time and resources,” Limani told the paper. “I was getting worried we weren’t gonna find her.”

Axel Hayes, Pollard’s son, said in a brief phone interview Friday that he had not heard from authorities and planned to call his father, Kenny Pollard, to let him know.

Elizabeth Pollard was last seen searching for her cat Pepper on Monday evening near a restaurant a half-mile from her home. Pollard’s family reported her missing around 1 a.m. Tuesday as the temperature in the area dropped below freezing.

The search her focused on a sinkhole with a manhole-sized surface gap that may have only recently opened up in the village of Marguerite, above where coal was mined until about 70 years ago.

Police said they found Pollard’s car parked about 20 feet from the sinkhole. Pollard’s 5-year-old granddaughter was found safe inside the car.

Hunters and restaurant workers who were in the area in the hours before Pollard’s disappearance told police they hadn’t noticed the sinkhole.

The effort to find Pollard included lowering a pole camera with a sensitive listening device into the hole, although it detected nothing. Crews removed a massive amount of soil and rock to try to reach the area where they believed she fell into the chasm about 30 feet deep.

Pollard grew up in Jeanette, about 12 miles from Unity Township, where she lived for much of her adult life. She previously worked at Walmart and was married for more than 40 years.