Missing grandma believed to have fallen in sinkhole while searching for lost cat: ‘Never came back’

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Pennsylvania authorities are desperately searching for the grandmother who may have fallen into a massive sinkhole while looking for her missing cat.

Elizabeth Pollard, 64, was last seen in Marguerite, Pennsylvania, on the evening of Dec. 2. She parked her car outside a restaurant to look for her lost cat, Pepper.

Her 5-year-old granddaughter, who was later found safe, was left in the car at the time. Pollard’s family alerted authorities at 1 a.m. on Tuesday to report that she was missing.

When officials arrived at the scene, they discovered a gaping sinkhole within the vicinity of her car. It is unknown how deep the hole is, but crews found what appeared to be a shoe around 30 feet underground.

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Pennsylvania State Trooper Steve Limani told journalists that it was possible the hole opened up on Pollard while she stood and looked for Pepper, whose whereabouts are unknown.

“[Her granddaughter] nodded off in the car and woke up,” Limani said. “Grandma never came back.”

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

Temperatures in Marguerite were freezing overnight. Authorities also lowered a pole camera with a sensitive listening device into the sinkhole on Tuesday, but did not detect any sign of Pollard. 

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Local restaurant workers and hunters did not report or notice a sinkhole before Pollard went missing, leading authorities to believe that the hole may have swallowed the missing woman.

Marguerite, a western Pennsylvania village that had once been a coal town, is susceptible to sinkholes due to past mining activity.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection responded to the Marguerite sinkhole and found that it was likely caused by work in Marguerite Mine, which has not been in operation since 1952.

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Authorities are actively investigating the incident. No additional details are known at this time.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.