Missing woman feared to have fallen into Pennsylvania sinkhole: Shoe found as search continues

Editor's note: Follow along here for the latest news on Thursday, Dec. 5 about the woman feared to have fallen into a sinkhole in Pennsylvania. 

Rescue efforts continued into a second day Wednesday in a southwest Pennsylvania village where a sinkhole is feared to have swallowed up a grandmother who was looking for her cat, state authorities said.

Local, state and federal agencies are searching for Elizabeth Pollard, 64, who apparently fell into the sinkhole near Monday's Union Restaurant in Unity Township, about 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania State Police confirmed to USA TODAY.

"The search and rescue incident on Marguerite Road is still a very active scene," the Unity Township Bureau of Fire announced in a news release.

On Wednesday, PSP Communications Director Myles Snyder told USA TODAY a camera lowered into the hole revealed what appears to be a shoe. It was not immediately known whether the shoe belongs to Pollard.

Unity Township fire officials said crews have closed several roads in the area to stage equipment and give "a safe area for crews to operate."

The agency is asking people to avoid the area. The restaurant near the sinkhole remained closed for a second day Wednesday, according to a post on its social media page.

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Authorities say mine is unsafe for rescuers

Pleasant Unity Fire Chief John Bacha said in a Wednesday news conference that the abandoned mine where search and rescue efforts were taking place was too dangerous to send rescue workers.

"Things changed quickly when we encountered an oxygen deficient atmosphere," Bacha said.

Bacha said that the danger became apparent around 3 a.m. Wednesday morning and that the roof of the mine had collapsed in several places and that it was unstable.

Officials said that rescue efforts would continue with heavy equipment, cameras and electronics.

The abandoned mine is in Marguerite, an unincorporated community and coal town in Westmoreland County. Bacha described the area of the state as "a series of coal patch towns."

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When was Elizabeth Pollard last seen?

Pollard was last seen around 5 p.m. Monday searching for her cat Pepper, Snyder confirmed to USA TODAY. Pollard's family contacted state police at around 1 a.m. Tuesday morning to report that she had not come home.

Police found Pollard's car behind the restaurant around 3 a.m. with her 5-year-old granddaughter safe inside, the agency reported. State troopers found a sinkhole in the area near the car nearly the size of a manhole cover.

"The sinkhole, it appears that it was most likely created during the time, unfortunately, that Mrs. Pollard was walking around," Limani told KDKA on Tuesday. "We don't see any evidence of any time where that hole would have been there prior to deciding to walk around and look for her cat."

Officials said more than 100 are people working on the rescue.

Officials said at the press conference that rescuers had reached a location where they thought Pollard might have been but did not find her.

"What happened at that point, I don’t know, maybe the slurry of mud pushed her one direction," Bacha said. "There were several different seams of that mine, shafts that all came together where this happened at."

State Rep. Leslie Rossi (R-Westmoreland) said that the Pollard family is in her "thoughts and prayers" in a statement released Wednesday morning.

"To assist in the recovery efforts, Ligonier Construction has been brought in with larger equipment, and the Pennsylvania State Bureau of Mines has dispatched a mining engineer and air monitoring resources to support the team as they continue its search," Rossi said.

This is a developing story and has been updated with new information. 

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Missing women may have fallen into Pennsylvania sinkhole; shoe found