Grandma, 64, searching for her missing cat falls down massive sinkhole sparking major rescue operation

The search is on for a Pennsylvania grandmother who fell into a massive sinkhole while searching for her missing cat.

Elizabeth Pollard, 64, was reported missing around 1 a.m. Tuesday by concerned family members, who believe she disappeared while searching for her cat, Pepper, in Unity Township, Westmoreland County.

Troopers found her car parked behind the Union Restaurant Monday, with her five-year-old granddaughter still inside, just over an hour after the alarm went off. A sinkhole was then located just a few meters away.

“We realized at that moment that this could be a very bad situation,” Steve Limani, a state trooper, told CNN.

The discovery sparked search and rescue efforts to find Pollard under the belief that she had fallen into the hole.

The sinkhole is similar to the size of a manhole on the surface, but becomes much wider underground, posing greater challenges to search efforts.

But the area is littered with old coal mines, leading troopers to believe it wasn’t there before she started looking for Pepper and most likely formed while she was walking around.

Officers noted that she may have gone missing as early as 5 p.m. – the last time she was seen by customers at the restaurant while they were looking for Pepper.

State police responded to a call where they found Pollard’s car with her 5-year-old granddaughter still inside and a sinkhole just a few feet away that is similar to the size of a manhole but widens as it gets deeper

The search, which involved more than a hundred people working together and an abundance of resources and technology, has so far turned up no trace of Pollard.

An initial look into the hole involved the use of a ladder and a harness, but there were no signs of Pollard.

“You couldn’t even get close enough to the hole because of the way it was undermined,” John Bacha, chief of the Pleasant Valley Volunteer Fire Company, told CNN.

The massive search that followed involved cameras and listening devices dropped into the hole, and more than a hundred people working together at one point to search for the missing grandmother.

But the tools and technology used in the search picked up no sounds or images of Pollard, except for one camera that captured what appeared to be a shoe.

“Let’s just say it’s a modern shoe, not something you’d find in a coal mine in Marguerite in 1940,” Bacha added.

Ligonier Construction is now working with agents and the Pennsylvania Bureau of Mines to evacuate and excavate the sinkhole.

So far there has been no communication with Pollard.

Pollard’s five-year-old granddaughter was unharmed and is now back with her parents, despite spending nearly 12 hours in sub-zero temperatures.

The area is littered with old coal mines, leading soldiers to believe it wasn’t there before she started looking for Pepper and that it was probably created while she was walking around.

Pollard was last seen by customers at the Union restaurant on Monday, where her car was discovered, in which her young granddaughter sat for nearly 12 hours waiting for her grandmother to return.

So far there has been no communication with Pollard, but the search will continue through the night

But she could not provide more details about what happened.

“She was just a five-year-old girl sitting in the car waiting for her grandmother to come back,” Limani added.

Mike O’Barto, chairman of the Unity Township Board of Supervisors, shared WPXI that they have drafted a resolution declaring a state of disaster emergency, giving the municipality and ambulance crews the opportunity to purchase all the equipment they need for the search without having to go through the bidding process.

Rescuers hope she will be trapped in the void – where there is plenty of oxygen and temperatures are warmer than outside – and remain unharmed.

“Let’s face it, we have to have a little bit of luck,” Limani told CNN.

Search efforts will continue overnight.