Search for Fallen Grandmother in Sinkhole Now A Recovery Mission — Details Here

A Unity Township, Penn., family hopes rescuers will find their missing loved one.

The 64-year-old Westmoreland Country resident went missing on Dec. 2, 2024, when she drove to a nearby restaurant parking lot with her granddaughter to look for her missing cat. However, it seems like the grandmother found more than she bargained for during her search since hours passed without anyone hearing back from her.

It's believed that the woman fell into a sinkhole during her search. Rescuers were previously optimistic about their rescue mission, but now, sadly, the mission has turned into more of a recovery.

Here's everything you need to know about the case of the missing Pennsylvania grandmother.

According to CBS News, Elizabeth Pollard drove her 5-year-old granddaughter to a nearby restaurant to look for the older woman's missing cat. She left her granddaughter in the car while she searched for Pepper. When her family hadn't heard back from the pair by 1 a.m., they began to worry, so they called the authorities for help.

When the State Police arrived on the scene, they were able to quickly find the 5-year-old, but Pollard remained missing.

Upon further examination, it sounds like the officers found a freshly opened sinkhole, which they believed swallowed the grandmother just moments after she left the car.

A representative from the Pennsylvania State Police told CBS News that the hole was "about the size of manhole cover" and plunged more than 30 feet below the Earth's surface. While a fall from that height could be deadly, the authorities remain optimistic since Pollard's remains weren't immediately found.

However, in a news conference on Dec. 4, Pennsylvania State Police spokesperson Trooper Steve Limani told journalists that the rescue mission was now a recovery mission, as there have been "no signs of life" in efforts to recover Pollard, per CNN.

Limani added that oxygen levels in the sinkhole have become "lower than what you’d want for someone to try and sustain their life." Responders are still trying to recover Pollard.

One day after State Police reported the sinkhole, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) shared a statement. According to CBS News, the statement revealed that the Bureau of Mine Safety had been sent to the site to help provide information and assistance to the first responders in the group.

Additionally, the DEP stated that they believed the sinkhole had been caused by a coal mining company that had worked in the area decades before.

That doesn't mean that mining is the only way to cause sinkholes. Instead, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) says that they can be caused anywhere where water (like rain) sinks directly into the ground beneath it, all the way down through the subsurface.

From there, the water dissolves the subterrane, creating a network of underground tunnels, caverns, and spaces that cannot be easily detected from above.

Areas full of materials that dissolve when exposed to groundwater — like carbonate rock, gypsum, limestone, and more — are more likely to produce these underground holes. 

And then there are other reasons, like leaking pipes or underground drainage issues, that can also cause sinkholes to appear.

If you're hoping to repair a sinkhole, Lehigh University's Lehigh Environmental Initiative says that filling it up is the way to go.

A guide on the process recommends excavating the sinkhole as far as you can go, but preferably until you hit rock. Next, it suggests building an aggregate filter in the space by creating layers of different-sized stones, moving largest to smallest from the ground up, until you finally top it off with gravel, then sand, then soil.

Hopefully, this is exactly what officials in Unity Township are planning to do with the abandoned mine after finding Pollard safe and sound. Here's hoping her family won't have to wait too much longer to be reunited with their beloved grandmother.

This article, originally published on Dec. 4, 2024, has been updated.