After Missing Grandma Was Found Dead in Sinkhole, Police Reveal New Details of What May Have Happened

Mar. 15, 2025

The sinkhole, where the remains of Elizabeth Pollard was found, Dec. 6, 2024 is shown in Marguerite, Pa.Photo:AP Photo/Matt Freed

AP Photo/Matt Freed

At anafternoon press conferenceon Friday, Dec. 6, Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Steve Limani said that the body ofElizabeth Pollard, 64, was found earlier that day at approximately 11:05 a.m. local time.

“During the course of the removal of dirt and sifting through things, we did find Elizabeth,” Limani told reporters. “We found her approximately 30 feet below the surface of where the mine would have sat. She was about 12 feet southwest of where the original sinkhole occurred.”

Marguerite Fire Chief Scot Graham, the incident commander, noted that crews extricated Pollard’s body from the hole with the use of machinery because “it was not safe to send anybody down.”

Pollard’s body is currently at the coroner’s office, according to Limani. An autopsy will determined her cause of death.

A Pennsylvania State Trooper looks over the sinkhole, where the remains of Elizabeth Pollard was found Dec. 6, 2024 in Marguerite, Pa.AP Photo/Matt Freed

About 36 hours after Pollard was first reported missing, authorities shifted direction in the search and rescue effort, citing safety concerns — and on Wednesday, Dec. 4, Limani said thatthe search had turned into a recovery effortwhile the fragile state of the mine resulted in a change in rescue operations.

“The condition of the mine that we’ve been working through has changed our potential outlook on where we’re probably headed with our investigation,” he shared at the time.

At the Dec. 6 press conference, Limani said authorities currently believe that as the mine began to deteriorate and the sinkhole started to form, it created a mound, which he described as being shaped like a Hershey’s kiss.

“The best we could figure out right now,” Limani explained, “because obviously we don’t have the autopsy back…[is] when she fell through the shaft and she landed and struck that mound— [then] it appeared that she rolled or moved that 12 feet or so where our initial spot was.”

That created difficulty for searchers to find her, he added, “because we knew she was probably going to hit the top [of that mound] and where she went from there was going to be the difficulty of how the gravity affected her location.”

According toThe New York Times,Limani said there was no sign of the cat.

Addressing community concerns about the sinkhole, he added that authorities are currently working to put the dirt back, installing a grout and shoring up the entire area.

The recovery of Pollard’s body has provided some closure for her loved ones.

“I couldn’t have been more happy for the family that we were able to find her because that was the only thing they were concerned with,” Limani said during the press conference, sharing that her family wants to “do what’s right when it comes to [memorializing her] and having a viewing.”

“We grieve for you,” he continued, addressing Pollard’s family. “Our heart aches for what you’re having to go through and for the messages that we had to deliver, so please accept our condolences.”

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

“I am more happy that they found her, but not in the condition we were hoping for,” Pollard’s son, Axel Hayes, told theTimes. “We were hoping she had maybe fallen and hit her head and was maybe unconscious or in a coma and that it wouldn’t come to this.”

In a message to PEOPLE before her body was found, Hayes said that although they were “still holding out hope,” they had prepared “for the worst.”

He added, “I can only say [I] appreciate everybody’s hard work and efforts in searching for my mother.”

source: people.com