By Gene Puskar and Mark Scolforo
Associated Press
UNITY TOWNSHIP, Pa. 鈥� The search for a woman who is believed to have fallen into a sinkhole in western Pennsylvania has become a recovery effort after two treacherous days of digging through mud and rock produced no signs of life, authorities said Wednesday.
The crew working to find 64-year-old Elizabeth Pollard packed up Wednesday evening and planned to return Thursday morning.
Pennsylvania State Police spokesperson Trooper Steve Limani said during a news conference that authorities no longer believe they will find Pollard alive, but that work to find her remains continues.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had no signs of any form of life or anything鈥� to make rescuers think they should 鈥渃ontinue to try and push and rush and push the envelope, to be aggressive with the potential of risking harm to other people,鈥� Limani said. He noted that oxygen levels below ground were insufficient.
Emergency crews and others have been Pollard for two days. Her relatives reported her missing early Tuesday, and her vehicle with her unharmed 5-year-old granddaughter inside was found about two hours later, near what is thought to be a freshly opened sinkhole above a long closed, crumbling mine.
鈥淲e feel like we failed,鈥� Limani said of the decision to change the status of the effort from a rescue to a recovery. 鈥淚t鈥檚 tough.鈥�
Limani praised the crews who went into the abandoned mine to help remove material in the search for Pollard in the village of Marguerite, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of Pittsburgh.
鈥淭hey would come out of there head to toe covered in mud, exhausted. And while they were getting pulled up, the next group鈥檚 getting dropped in. And there was one after the next after the next,鈥� Limani said.
Authorities had said earlier that the roof of the mine had collapsed in several places and was not stable.
鈥淲e did get, you know, where we wanted, where we thought that she was at. We鈥檝e been to that spot,鈥� Pleasant Unity Fire Chief John Bacha, the incident鈥檚 operations officer, said earlier Wednesday. 鈥淲hat happened at that point, I don鈥檛 know, maybe the slurry of mud pushed her one direction. There were several different seams of that mine, shafts that all came together where this happened at.鈥�
Searchers were using electronic devices and cameras as surface digging continued with the use of heavy equipment, Bacha said. In the coming days, they plan to greatly widen the surface hole, with winter weather forecast in the region.
Geological engineer Paul Santi said the chances of Pollard surviving if she slipped into the sinkhole were 鈥減retty small.鈥�
鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of problems,鈥� said Santi, a professor at the Colorado School of Mines. 鈥淭here鈥檚 rock and soil and things that could have buried her. There is water that could have filled it. You have to go through with the rescue. But I would be surprised if she came through this OK ... it would require that she wasn鈥檛 killed by the fall, she wasn鈥檛 killed by the rock, that there was an air pocket and she鈥檚 able to survive in it.鈥�
Sinkholes occur in the area because of subsidence from coal mining activity. Rescuers had been using water to break down and remove clay and dirt from the mine, which has been closed since the 1950s.
Crews had lowered a pole camera with a sensitive listening device into the hole, but it detected nothing. Another camera lowered into the hole showed what could be a shoe about 30 feet (9 meters) below the surface, Limani said Tuesday. Searchers also deployed drones and thermal imaging equipment to no avail.
Pollard鈥檚 family called police at about 1 a.m. Tuesday to say she had not been seen since going out at about 5 p.m. Monday to search for Pepper, her cat. The temperature dropped well below freezing that night.
Limani said the searchers met with her family before announcing the shift from rescue to recovery. 鈥淚 think they get it,鈥� Limani said.
Pollard鈥檚 son, Axel Hayes, described her as a happy woman who liked going out to have fun. She and her husband adopted Hayes and his twin brother when they were infants. She used to work at Walmart but recently was not employed.
Hayes called Pollard 鈥渁 great person overall, a great mother鈥� who 鈥渘ever really did anybody wrong.鈥�
He said at one point Pollard had about 10 cats.
鈥淓very cat that she鈥檚 ever come in contact with, she has a close bond with them,鈥� Hayes said.
Police said they found Pollard鈥檚 car parked behind Monday鈥檚 Union Restaurant in Marguerite, about 20 feet (6 meters) from the sinkhole. Hunters and restaurant workers in the area said they had not noticed the manhole-size opening in the hours before Pollard disappeared, leading rescuers to speculate that the sinkhole was new.
Pollard lived in a small neighborhood across the street from where her car and granddaughter were found by state police. It鈥檚 unclear what happened to the cat.