The wrongful death lawsuit names U.S. Steel and the owner of Monday’s Union Restaurant.
LATROBE, Pa. — The family of a 64-year-old Pennsylvania woman who died after falling through a sinkhole while searching for her cat has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against U.S. Steel and a restaurant owner.
Elizabeth Pollard’s husband, Kenneth Pollard, filed the suit in Westmoreland County after a search that drew national attention in December 2024. The complaint says Pollard fell into a collapse above an abandoned mine near Monday’s Union Restaurant in Unity Township and alleges the danger should have been inspected, marked or fixed before the ground opened beneath her. The defendants have not been found liable. U.S. Steel said it was reviewing the lawsuit, and the restaurant owner declined comment in local reports.
Pollard disappeared on the night of Dec. 2, 2024, while looking for her missing cat, Pepper. Authorities said she had pulled behind Monday’s Union Restaurant, near the village of Marguerite, with her 5-year-old granddaughter in the vehicle. When Pollard did not return, relatives reported her missing early the next morning. Police later found her car about 20 feet from a fresh sinkhole, with the child safe inside. State police said the opening was small at the surface but led into unstable mine workings below. Search crews spent days digging through soil, rock and collapsed material before her body was recovered Dec. 6.
The lawsuit says Pollard fell into an approximately 20-foot-deep opening above abandoned underground mine workings. State police said after the recovery that her body was found about 30 feet underground and roughly 12 feet from the original sinkhole opening. Investigators believed she may have fallen onto a cone-shaped pile of dirt and debris before moving farther into the mine area. Autopsy records later showed she died from injuries to her head and torso. Authorities did not report evidence of foul play, and the search shifted from rescue to recovery as the ground remained dangerous and oxygen levels in the void became a concern.
The civil complaint names Paul Iannuzzo, the owner of Monday’s Union Restaurant, and U.S. Steel, which the family says owned or controlled the mine interests beneath the property. It also names other unidentified parties. The suit alleges negligence and wrongful death, saying the defendants failed to maintain and inspect the mine, address hazardous conditions, warn the public and provide safe parking areas and paths. The complaint says the area where Pollard fell was highly susceptible to collapse because of years of earlier mining. U.S. Steel operated the Marguerite Mine until 1953, according to local reports citing the family’s lawyer.
Mark Malone, an attorney for the Pollard family, said the case is about accountability as well as damages. “The Pollard family is looking for answers and accountability,” Malone said. He said the family wants to know what the defendants knew about the land, the closed mine and the risk of mine subsidence before Pollard fell. Malone also said the family hopes the case leads to stronger attention to long-abandoned mines. “This shouldn’t have happened, and hopefully it never happens again,” he said. The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of money to be determined through the court process.
The search for Pollard involved state police, local firefighters, rescue teams, excavation crews and mine safety officials. Crews used heavy machinery, cameras and listening equipment as they worked around the unstable opening. Trooper Steve Limani said at the time that hunters and restaurant workers who had been in the area before Pollard disappeared did not report seeing the sinkhole. The ground conditions made the work dangerous for searchers. Unity Township officials said the death struck hard in a community built around former coal towns, where abandoned mining areas remain part of the local landscape.
After Pollard’s body was recovered, crews moved to stabilize the abandoned mine void. Local reports said crews pumped more than 3,300 cubic yards of grout into the mine area in early 2025. That work was meant to fill empty spaces underground and lower the chance of another collapse. The lawsuit argues that action came too late for Pollard. Her family has said she was a wife, mother and grandmother who loved flower gardening, crafts and cats. Her death left relatives grieving both the sudden loss and the difficult days when crews searched beneath the restaurant property.
The case is now in its early civil stage in Westmoreland County. The defendants are expected to answer the complaint or challenge parts of it as the lawsuit moves forward. No trial date has been publicly reported. The next steps could include court filings, document requests, depositions and expert review of the mine history, surface property records and repair work done after Pollard’s death.
The lawsuit stood Wednesday as a civil claim, not a finding of fault. The central question for the court is whether the defendants knew or should have known the mine-linked ground could collapse where Pollard fell.
Author note: Last updated May 6, 2026.