The disappearance of a 64-year-old Pennsylvania woman is being investigated by state authorities, who said on Tuesday they fear she may have fallen into a sinkhole.

What Happened?

Elizabeth Pollard went missing on Monday evening after heading out to find her missing cat, Pepper, in the village of Marguerite, located about 40 miles east of Pittsburgh. The family of Pollard then called police at about 1 a.m. local time on Tuesday to say she had not been seen going out.

Pennsylvania State Police soon discovered her vehicle parked near Union Restaurant with her 5-year-old granddaughter inside, unharmed but alone.

According to trooper Steve Limani, Pollard lives in a small neighborhood across the street from where her car and granddaughter were located.

However, a sinkhole had recently opened up as emergency crews worked through the frigid night, using advanced equipment to probe the manhole-sized sinkhole.

A pole camera outfitted with a sensitive listening device revealed no signs of life, though a second inspection hinted at the presence of what may be a shoe about 30 feet below the surface.

Authorities suspect the sinkhole, likely caused by subsidence from historic coal mining in the region, opened suddenly beneath Pollard as the opening had not been seen by hunters and restaurant workers who were in the area in the hours before Pollard’s disappearance.

“It almost feels like it opened up with her standing on top of it,” Limani said.

Rescue efforts have since been intensified, with heavy machinery brought in to excavate the area.

“We’re pretty confident we are in the right place,” John Bacha, chief of the Pleasant Valley Volunteer Fire Company told Triblive. “We’re hoping there is still a void she could be in.”

How Did the Sinkhole Appear?

The sinkhole is believed to be linked to the long-abandoned Marguerite Mine, which operated until 1952 by the H.C. Frick Coke Company, according to the state’s Department of Environmental Protection. The Pittsburgh coal seam is about 20 feet below the surface in that area.

Police said sinkholes are not uncommon because of subsidence from coal mining activity in the area.

However, this incident highlights the lingering dangers of Pennsylvania’s coal mining legacy, with the state’s Department of Environmental Protection on-site to assess the area.

After the search concludes, experts from the Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation will determine if mine subsidence definitively caused the sinkhole, Department of Environmental Protection spokesperson Neil Shader said.

This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.

Two Pennsylvania state lawmakers have unveiled a new plan to legalize recreational marijuana, saying the state is an “outlier” in its continued prohibition of cannabis. Democratic Reps. Rick Krajewski and Dan Frankel, who led several hearings on cannabis reform during the past legislative session, said they plan to introduce legislation to decriminalize cannabis and create a regulated market that focuses on public health, raises revenue for the state and supports those harmed by the criminalization of marijuana.

Frankel and Krajewski are distributing a memo seeking cosponsors for the bill planned for the 2025-2025 legislative session, online cannabis news source Marijuana Moment reported on Monday. The memo outlines the rationale for legalizing cannabis in Pennsylvania and highlights key provisions of adult-use cannabis legislation they plan to introduce next year.

“As a state that continues to criminalize recreational cannabis, Pennsylvania is now an outlier—24 states have legalized the practice, including 5 of the 6 states that border Pennsylvania,” the legislators wrote in the co-sponsorship memo.

“But legal or not, Pennsylvanians are consuming marijuana, whether by visiting our bordering states, buying unregulated hemp loophole products at gas stations and vape shops, or purchasing in the illicit market,” they continued.

The memo, which invites fellow lawmakers to join Frankel and Krajewski in sponsoring the upcoming bill, maintains that decades of cannabis prohibition have failed to keep Pennsylvanians safe.

“Prohibition is a failed policy with significant consequences to our Commonwealth,” the memo reads. “It has ruined lives over minor cannabis offenses, disproportionately impacting Black and Brown communities. Consumption of unregulated and dangerous products has increased. And we are losing millions of public revenue that our communities need.”

Lawmakers Held Hearings To Study Cannabis Legalization Efforts

Krajewski, who led the House Health Subcommittee on Health Care, chaired five legislative hearings during the last session to weigh the successes and failures of cannabis legalization in other states.

“We’ve heard from public health experts. We’ve heard from criminal justice and social equity advocates,” Krajewski said on Monday in a statement about the new bill. We’ve learned directly from states across the country how to get this done safely and efficiently, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in public revenue,” said Krajewski. “It’s time to move forward in Pennsylvania before we fall further behind.”

Frankel, the majority chair of the House Health Committee, said marijuana prohibition has been a disaster in Pennsylvania, particularly for communities of color.

“We have a moral obligation to not only legalize but also to work to repair the damage caused by decades of marijuana arrests,” Frankel said. “Our bill will deliver a market that protects the public health, benefits our taxpayers and uplifts those communities that were disproportionately harmed by prohibition policies.”

Legalization Bill Expunges Past Weed Convictions

To address the harms caused by marijuana prohibition, the legislation prioritizes expunging records of past cannabis-related offenses and “restorative justice for those affected by draconian drug policies.” The bill also includes provisions to invest funds raised by cannabis legalization to communities disproportionately harmed by the failed War on Drugs.

The bill also prioritizes public protections, including provisions to limit “excessive THC levels.” Additionally, the legislation seeks to establish a Pennsylvania cannabis industry that provides sustainable business opportunities for a local and diverse field of licensed operators.

“Prohibition was a reckless and racist policy which deliberately targeted and destroyed Black and Brown communities,” said Krajewski. “As a criminal justice organizer and chair of the Pennsylvania Sentencing Commission, I’m fighting to ensure that we reinvest revenue generated from the cannabis industry into areas most impacted by the War on Drugs and ensure that those who are still dealing with criminal sentences and records are able to finally move on.”

In September, a different bipartisan pair of lawmakers introduced a bill to legalize cannabis in Pennsylvania and create a regulated market for adult-use cannabis. The bill was referred to the House health committee but has not been brought up for a vote.