A Pennsylvania grandmother is believed to have been swallowed by a sinkhole while looking for her missing cat, authorities said Tuesday.
Elizabeth Pollard, 64, was reported missing by her family in the early hours of Tuesday. She was last seen on Monday around 5 p.m. before going out to search for her cat, Pepper.
A family member called state police around 1 a.m. to report she hadn’t come home.
Pollard’s car was discovered around 3 a.m. near a restaurant in Marguerite, a coal town in Westmoreland County about 35 miles east of Pittsburgh, state police spokesperson Steve Limani said Tuesday at a news conference.
Pollard’s 5-year-old granddaughter was found safe inside the car, despite the vehicle being turned off and temperatures dropping into the 20s overnight, Limani said.
While troopers were conducting their search, they discovered a sinkhole nearby, “maybe 15 to 20 feet from the vehicle,” according to Limani. Police believe the opening was most likely created while Pollard was walking around in the search for her cat.
While the sinkhole’s circumference is “very small… once you get down below the surface, it gets significantly wider,” Limani said. “It almost feels like it opened up with her standing on top of it.”
During the search-and-rescue operation, cameras showed a “big void, and it was all different depths,” according to Marguerite Fire Chief Scott Graham.
“We determined it’s roughly about 30 feet before you see a lot of debris,” Limani told CBS Pittsburgh on Tuesday. “Right now we have a vacuum truck that’s working on trying to remove the debris to see if we can see if there’s an individual down there.”
Emergency responders, including the state’s Department of Mining, local firefighters, volunteers, and a technical rescue team are working together to remove excess dirt to access the sinkhole.
Pollard’s granddaughter has since been reunited with her parents. Pepper the cat has not been located.