Body of missing grandmother recovered from Pennsylvania sinkhole

The remains of a woman who fell into a sinkhole were recovered Friday, four days after she went missing while searching for her cat, a state police spokesperson said.

Trooper Steve Limani said the body of Elizabeth Pollard, 64, was being taken to the Westmoreland County Coroner's Office for an autopsy.

More details will come during a news conference planned for this afternoon at a nearby fire hall.

The announcement came in the fourth day of the search for Pollard, who had last been seen Monday evening, looking for her cat Pepper near a restaurant less than a kilometre from her home in the village of Marguerite, Pa.

Axel Hayes, Pollard's son, said a state trooper told him and other family members that her body had been found.

"I was hoping for the best, I really was," Hayes said in a phone interview. "I was hoping she was still alive, maybe in a coma or something. I wasn't expecting all of this."

Pollard's family reported her missing around 1 a.m. Tuesday as the temperature in the area dropped below freezing.

The search for her focused on a sinkhole with a manhole-sized surface gap that may have only recently opened up in the village of Marguerite. The sinkhole was above a former coal mine, which last operated about 70 years ago.

Police said they found Pollard's car parked about six metres from the sinkhole. Pollard's five-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 the grandmother fell into the nine-metre-deep chasm.

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

Neil Shader, spokesperson with the Department of Environmental Protection, said the state's Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation will examine the scene to see if the sinkhole was indeed caused by mine subsidence.

In June, a giant sinkhole in southern Illinois swallowed the centre of a soccer field built on top of a limestone mine, taking down a large light pole and leaving a gaping chasm where squads of kids often play. No one was hurt.