On Monday, December 2, a 64-year-old grandma named Elizabeth Pollard went missing while she was looking for her cat in Pennsylvania. Pollard had fallen into a sinkhole, and, days later, authorities later recovered her lifeless body. In a recent press conference, authorities have revealed some heartbreaking details surrounding Pollard's death.
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"During the course of the removal of dirt and sifting through things, we did find Elizabeth," Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Steve Limani said during the press conference, reported by PEOPLE. "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." This would imply that Pollard "rolled or moved" that distance after she fell into the sinkhole.
According to Limani, authorities had to change their rescue operation due to the condition of the mine that, reportedly, caused the sinkhole to appear. "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," Limani said on December 4, before Pollard's body was recovered. The nature of her location made it difficult for rescuers to find her.
According to The New York Times, four days of search involved more than 140 people. Before finding Pollard's body, they found her vehicle with Pollard's five-year-old granddaughter sleeping safely inside.
A Family In Mourning
Despite the tragic news of Pollard's passing, it came as a relief for the family who were struggling with not knowing what had happened to Elizabeth Pollard. "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. He would tell Pollard's family that they were grieving for them and offered their condolences.
Axel Hayes, Elizabeth Pollard's son, still hoped that his mother was alive. "I am more happy that they found her, but not in the condition we were hoping for," Hayes said. "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."
Hayes describes his mother as a "always happy, always loving and kind" woman, while one of her co-workers called her a "wonderful person" and a "happy-go-lucky" lady.
