The body of a missing grandmother was found after a search in Pennsylvania led to her death, a coroner said

The Pennsylvania coroner's office said Friday that investigators believe they have found the body of a woman who was last seen four days earlier near a shaft above a closed coal mine.

Sean Hribal, deputy coroner in Westmoreland County, said investigators believe they have found the remains of 64-year-old Elizabeth Pollard.

State Trooper Steve Limani told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that it was a big relief for the search team that Pollard had been found.

“We were running out of options, time and resources,” Limani told the newspaper. “I was afraid we wouldn't find him.”

Axel Hayes, Pollard's son, said in a brief phone interview Friday that he had not heard from management and planned to call his father, Kenny Pollard, to let him know.

Elizabeth Pollard was last seen searching for her cat Pepper on Monday evening near a restaurant less than a mile from her home. Pollard's family reported her missing around 1 a.m. Tuesday as temperatures dropped below freezing.

His search focuses on a sinkhole with a gap the size of a hole that may have just opened in the village of Marguerite. The pit was over a former coal mine, which was last operated about 70 years ago.

Police say they found Pollard's car parked about six meters from the scene of the death. Pollard's five-year-old grandson 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 had not seen the hideout.

Say it to see if the mine has created a sinkhole

The effort to find Pollard included lowering a pole camera with a sensitive listening device into the hole, although it turned up nothing. Workers removed a lot of soil and rocks to try to reach the place where they believe the grandmother fell into the nine-meter-deep hole.

Pollard grew up in Jeanette, about nine miles from Unity Township, where he lived most of his adult life. He previously worked at Walmart and had been married for over 40 years.

Neil Shader, spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection, said the Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation will examine the scene to see if the sinkhole was caused by the sinking of the mine.

In June, a giant sinkhole in southern Illinois swallowed a soccer field built on top of a limestone mine, bringing down a large light pole and leaving a gap where groups of children often play. No one was injured.

In 2023, a sinkhole that swallowed a man and killed him as he slept in his Tampa, Fla., home reopened a third time, but it was behind a fence and didn't hurt people or property.