The body of Elizabeth Pollard, 64, who went missing Monday while looking for her cat, was recovered from a sinkhole in Unity Township, Pennsylvania.

The sinkhole developed above an abandoned mine around the time Ms. Pollard began looking for the cat, named Pepper. Her car, with her 5-year-old granddaughter inside, was found parked at a restaurant near the sinkhole. 

“We found her approximately 30 feet below where the mine would have sat. We found her at about 11:05 a.m. She was about 12 feet southwest of where the original sinkhole occurred,” Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Steve Limani said at a press conference on Friday.

He said that when she fell and hit a mound of debris, “it appears that she rolled or moved,” making it difficult for rescuers to find her.

The Westmoreland County Coroner’s Office’s autopsy is scheduled for Monday, according to Pittsburgh’s Tribune-Review.

Attempts were made to recover her alive, but the use of water to clear the sinkhole stopped because it could’ve caused the mine to cave in and endangered human rescuers. Instead, dogs and unmanned devices tried to find her.

PHOTOS: Crews recover the body of a woman from a Pennsylvania sinkhole after a 4-day search

By Wednesday evening, the responding agencies reclassified their efforts from rescue to recovery, contending Ms. Pollard probably couldn’t be found alive due to decreasing levels of oxygen in the sinkhole and mine, according to Pittsburgh CBS affiliate KDKA-TV.

Pepper hasn’t been found, reported the TV station.

As for the mine, the Bureau of Mining is “going to put the dirt back, and then they’re going to talk about putting a grout in there, eventually, and shoring up the entire area. They absolutely plan on going into all of that particular area, that whole mine complex. … They’re going to work through all of that,” Trooper Limani said.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.