Rescuers change tactics in search for woman who may have fallen into sinkhole

4 December 2024, 16:04

Workers probing a sinkhole
Rescuers change tactics in sinkhole search. Picture: PA

Elizabeth Pollard, 64, went missing when she went to look for her cat.

Rescuers were contemplating the safest way on Wednesday to search for a woman who apparently fell into a Pennsylvania sinkhole while looking for her lost cat, saying a crumbling old coal mine was complicating efforts and endangering workers.

Crews worked through the night in the Unity Township community of Marguerite to find Elizabeth Pollard, 64.

A state police spokesperson said early on Wednesday they were reassessing their tactics to avoid putting themselves at risk.

“The integrity of that mine is starting to become compromised,” Trooper Steve Limani told reporters in the township near Latrobe, about 40 miles east of Pittsburgh.

It almost feels like it opened up with her standing on top of it

Steve Limani, Pennsylvania State Trooper

Rescuers had been using water to break down clay and dirt to remove it from the mine, but that action was making conditions dangerous “for potential other mine subsidence to take place”, he said.

“We’re probably going to have to switch gears” and do a more complicated dig, he said.

On Tuesday, they lowered a pole camera with a sensitive listening device into the hole, but it detected nothing.

A camera lowered into the hole showed what could be a shoe about 30 feet below the surface, Trooper Limani said.

“It almost feels like it opened up with her standing on top of it,” he said.

Ms Pollard’s family called police at about 1am Tuesday to say she had not been seen since going out Monday evening to search for Pepper, her cat.

Police said they found Ms Pollard’s car parked near Monday’s Union Restaurant in Marguerite.

The manhole-size opening had not been seen by hunters and restaurant workers who were in the area in the hours before Ms Pollard’s disappearance, leading rescuers to speculate the sinkhole was new.

Authorities used an excavator to dig in the area, where temperatures dropped below freezing overnight.

“We are pretty confident we are in the right place. We’re hoping there is still a void she could be in,” Pleasant Valley Fire Chief John Bacha told Triblive.

Ms Pollard lives in a small neighbourhood across the street from where her car and granddaughter were located, Trooper Limani said.

The young girl “nodded off in the car and woke up. Grandma never came back”, he said.

The child stayed in the car until two troopers rescued her. It is not clear what happened to Pepper.

By Press Association

Latest World News

See more Latest World News

Video footage shows the convoy had emergency lights flashing when it was hit

Israel admits ‘mistakenly’ killing 15 aid workers after video leak contradicted official version of events

Jaguar Land Rover has paused shipments to the US in the wake of 'Liberation Day' tariffs

Jaguar Land Rover halts shipments to US in wake of tariffs as Trump insists he'll win 'economic revolution'

Flowers and toys left on a swing seat to commemorate victims killed in Russia's missile attack on Friday

Death toll from Russian strike on Zelenskyy's home town rises as 18 confirmed dead - including nine children

Donald Trump's 10% tariff on UK products has officially come into force

Trump tariffs come into force as global stock markets plunge deeper into the red

Tom Howard

British tourist killed after being struck by boulder on trek through Himalayas

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, a car burns following a Russian missile attack that killed more than a dozen people, including children, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

Russia kills 16 people including three children in missile strike on Zelenskyy's home town, with dozens wounded

Travel influencer Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, made an illegal visit to North Sentinel Island

Tourist who left Coke for world's most isolated tribe 'could have wiped them all out' - and police 'can't go collect can'

White House weighs in to support ‘censored’ anti-abortion activists in Britain

White House looking to support ‘censored’ anti-abortion activists in Britain

This image provided by NASA shows Nick Hague, right, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore. (NASA via AP)

Stranded NASA astronauts reveal they were almost trapped in space 'forever' after horror malfunction

Donald Trump demands France 'free Marine Le Pen'

Donald Trump demands France 'free Marine Le Pen' after far-right leader found guilty of embezzlement in 'witch hunt'

China will impose a 34% retaliatory tariff on imports from the US

China announces additional 34% tariffs on US imports in retaliation over Trump's 'Liberation Day' levies

Friends of Prince Andrew say he's "unsurprised" Giuffre made the post

Prince Andrew 'not surprised' his accuser shared shock post saying she had 'four days to live'

South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol

South Korea president Yoon Suk Yeol removed from office as impeachment upheld over martial law declaration

Virginia Giuffre

Woman driving Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre during crash that left her with 'four days to live' breaks silence

Exclusive
'Donald Trump has made Putin comfortable,' Mikhail Khodorkovsky has warned

'Trump has made Putin comfortable' despite massive Ukraine war losses, exiled former oligarch tells LBC

The bodies of Andrew Searle and his wife Dawn were discovered by a neighbour.

British couple found dead in south of France home being ‘treated as murder-suicide’