A frantic search is underway in Pennsylvania for a grandmother who disappeared while looking for her cat, with authorities fearing she may have fallen into a large sinkhole. 64-year-old Elizabeth Pollard was last seen in Marguerite, Pennsylvania on the evening of December 2nd. She had parked her car outside a restaurant to search for her missing cat, Pepper, leaving her 5-year-old granddaughter asleep inside the vehicle. The child was later found safe.

Pollard's family contacted authorities around 1 a.m. on Tuesday to report her missing. Upon arrival, officials discovered a substantial sinkhole near Pollard's parked car. The depth of the hole remains unknown, but crews have located what appears to be a shoe approximately 30 feet down. Pennsylvania State Trooper Steve Limani suggested the sinkhole may have opened up beneath Pollard as she searched for her cat, whose whereabouts are also unknown. Limani noted that the granddaughter woke up to find her grandmother gone.

With freezing overnight temperatures in Marguerite, the situation is increasingly urgent. A pole camera equipped with a sensitive listening device was deployed into the sinkhole on Tuesday, but yielded no signs of Pollard. Neither local restaurant employees nor hunters in the area reported seeing the sinkhole prior to Pollard's disappearance, strengthening the theory that it may have formed suddenly. Marguerite, a former coal mining town in western Pennsylvania, is prone to sinkholes due to its history of mining activity. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has confirmed that the sinkhole is likely connected to the abandoned Marguerite Mine, which ceased operations in 1952.

The investigation is ongoing, and authorities are actively pursuing all leads.