Search for woman in sinkhole shifts to recovery effort: Police
Pennsylvania State Police
(UNITY TOWNSHIP, Pa.) — The dangerous search for a missing grandmother who officials believe fell into a deep sinkhole in Pennsylvania is now considered a recovery effort, police said Wednesday.
A challenging excavation has been underway at an abandoned coal mine in Unity Township since Tuesday when police said Elizabeth Pollard was reported missing after she was not heard from after searching for her cat.
The sinkhole is believed to be tied to the mine and formed while Pollard was walking in the area, officials said.
Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Steve Limani said authorities are “virtually positive” that she is in the mine, though do not believe she could still be alive at this stage based on the conditions underground, including the level of oxygen.
“I know we had a lot of hopes,” Limani said during a press briefing Wednesday evening, calling the development “difficult.”
“Unless it’s a miracle, most likely it’s recovery,” Limani said, later noting that it’s “definitely recovery” at this stage.
Rescue crews have been pumping oxygen into the mine, though it’s “lower than what you’d want for someone to try and sustain their life,” he said.
Cameras and sound devices have not found any signs of life that would warrant them to try to push ahead with urgency at the risk posed to search crews, he said.
He said authorities have had an “emotional” conversation with Pollard’s family to update them on the shift to a recovery effort.
“It feels like we failed,” an emotional Limani said. “But if somebody else gets hurt, I think it would be worse.”
Limani said crews will continue to work to recover Pollard and are preparing for inclement weather to resume the search on Thursday.
“We’re not quitting,” he said. “We are going to continue to work through this. It’s just taken longer than we thought. And the mine is just not in good condition.”
Pollard was last seen Monday evening, police said. Her vehicle was located shortly before 3 a.m. Tuesday with her 5-year-old granddaughter safe inside, though Pollard was nowhere to be seen, police said.
While searching for Pollard in the area, troopers found an apparent sinkhole with an opening about the “size of a manhole” 15 to 20 feet away from the vehicle, according to Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Steve Limani.
Local firefighters, a technical rescue team and the state’s Bureau of Mine Safety worked alongside an excavation team to remove dirt to access the sinkhole, Limani said.
Search crews were able to make entry into the mine area, though the integrity of the mine has been compromised by the water they are using to break up the ground, Limani said. Parts of the mine have started to buckle and collapse, he said.
“We’re afraid we’re going to make it worse if try to continue to plow forward with the techniques that we were using,” he said.
The area where the sinkhole formed has a “very thin layer of earth” and appears to have been deteriorating “for a long time,” Limani said. Other areas near the sinkhole have been deemed unsafe and will be quarantined off with round-the-clock police surveillance, Limani said.
The mine last operated in 1952, according to the state’s Department of Environmental Protection. The depth to the coal seam in this area is approximately 20 feet, a department spokesperson said.
Once the scene is clear, the department will investigate the site “to determine if this issue is the result of historic mine subsidence,” the spokesperson said.
(TEXAS) — As Texas prepares for severe winter weather, Gov. Greg Abbott expressed confidence Wednesday in the state’s power grid.
Frigid temperatures — along with snow, sleet and freezing rain — are expected to make their way into Texas starting Wednesday, especially in the northern part of the state. The storm is expected to start in the west before moving eastward through the state, Abbott said in a press conference Wednesday.
Winter storm advisories are in effect across much of the South, including in Dallas; Little Rock, Arkansas; Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee; Birmingham, Alabama; and Atlanta, which could see up to 6 inches of snow before the weekend.
In preparation for the snowfall in Texas, emergency response resources have been deployed across the state, including more than 350 warming centers.
“Obviously, the lives of our fellow Texans are by far the most important thing, and we’re directing resources and responses and strategies to make sure that we put protecting life first and foremost,” Abbott said.
The power grid is not expected to be an issue during the storm, though officials are preparing for downed power lines as a result of freezing rain and falling trees, he said.
Electric Reliability Council of Texas CEO Pablo Vegas reiterated Abbott’s confidence in the power grid, saying there is more than an adequate power supply for the expected weather event. ERCOT inspected 150 power stations in December, all of which he said went well, and more inspections are planned for January and February.
Roadways could be impacted by precipitation and icy conditions, and officials are urging Texans to stay off the roads and remain at home as much as possible. Texas Department of Transportation crews have been preparing for days, with over 2,000 crews out treating the roadways, Abbott said.
“I cannot emphasize enough to my fellow Texans, we’re not used to driving on ice and snow. We’re not used to driving in conditions like this,” Abbott said. “Be careful. Be cautious. Make sure that you’re protecting your own life.”
As of Wednesday morning, 16 roads in northwest Texas have already been impacted, Abbott said. The Texas National Guard has activated hundreds of resources, the Texas A&M Forest Service will be ready with chainsaws to clean up after the storm passes and the Texas Highway Patrol will be out to assist motorists.
Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd urged residents to be prepared at home, ensuring they have food, water and blankets in case they lose power. Kidd also warned of the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning when using a generator.
(LOS ANGELES) — The president of a mortgage lending company in California has been arrested on suspicion of murder after allegedly driving drunk through an intersection and killing an 88-year-old man, police said.
The traffic collision happened on Friday at approximately 6:15 p.m. when Orange County Sheriff’s deputies in California responded to a report of a traffic collision involving two vehicles at the intersection of Golden Lantern and Stonehill Drive in Dana Point, California – some 60 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, according to a statement from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
“Deputies arrived and discovered a Land Rover SUV and a Ford Transit van had been involved in a head-on collision,” police said. “Based on preliminary investigation, the Land Rover was traveling westbound on Stonehill Drive and turned left against a red arrow signal in front of the Ford Transit van traveling eastbound on Stonehill Drive.”
The driver of the transit van was taken to the hospital where he was treated for serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
However, an 88-year-old passenger of the transit van, Melvin Joseph Weibel of Dana Point, “succumbed to his injuries sustained in the collision and was pronounced deceased at the scene,” according to authorities.
The 48-year-old woman who was driving the Land Rover — Serene Francie Rosenberg of Dana Point — was immediately arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and booked into the Orange County Jail for murder and DUI causing injury.
Police confirmed that she had three prior convictions, but did not offer details on the charges that led to those convictions.
The company she works for, OCMBC, expressed its “deepest sympathies following the tragic traffic accident that occurred in Dana Point on January 31, 2025.”
“Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this heartbreaking event and we intend to monitor the situation closely, responding with care and responsibility in accordance with our company’s core values,” OCMBC said.
The company also announced that Rosenberg had been placed on administrative leave, and John Hamel, former Chief Capital Markets Officer, had “assumed the permanent role of President,” the company said.
“This leadership transition ensures continued stability and operational excellence,” said OCMBC.
“This has been a difficult time for everyone affected by this tragic event, and our hearts go out to those impacted,” said Rabi Aziz, CEO of OCMBC.
Meanwhile, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s Major Accident Investigation Team is investigating the collision and is asking for anyone with additional details or who may have witnessed the collision to contact the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s Traffic Bureau.
(NEW YORK) — Homicides across the United States are poised to plummet for the third straight year as 2024 winds down, driving the nation’s annual murder toll down to levels not seen since before the pandemic, according to preliminary data from cities both large and small.
Based on available crime statistics from U.S. law enforcement agencies, the year is expected to end with a nearly 16% drop in homicides nationwide and a 3.3% decline in overall violent crime, Jeff Asher, a national crime analyst, told ABC News.
The dramatic drop in homicides surpasses a 13% decline in 2023, then the largest decrease on record until now. In 2022, the number of murders across the country fell 6%, according to the FBI.
The three consecutive years of declining homicides come in the wake of a 30% jump in murders between 2019 and 2020, the largest single-year increase in more than a century.
“Considering where we were just three or four years ago, we’re basically looking at 5,000 fewer murder victims than in 2020, 2021 and 2022 having occurred in 2024,” said Asher, co-founder of AH Datalytics and a former crime analyst for the CIA and the New Orleans Police Department.
In contrast, a dozen major U.S. cities broke annual homicide records in 2021.
Philadelphia — which recorded an all-time high of 562 homicides in 2021, 516 in 2022 and 410 last year — has seen a 40% drop in homicides in 2024.
Other major cities seeing precipitous reductions in homicides this year are New Orleans, down 38%; Washington, D.C., down 29%; Memphis, Tennessee, down 23%; Baltimore, down 24%; Kansas City, Missouri, down 20%; and Los Angeles, down 15%.
New York City, the nation’s largest city, had recorded 357 homicides through Dec. 15, a 7.3% drop from 2023, according to New York Police Department crime statistics. The city — which tallied 442 murders in 2020, a 45% jump from 2019 — has seen homicides fall 15% over the past two years.
Chicago has recorded a 7% decline in homicides as of Dec. 15, down from 603 murders at this time last year, according to the Chicago Police Department’s crime data. Over the past three years, homicides in Chicago have fallen 29% after skyrocketing 55% between 2019 and 2020 to 769 murders.
Homicides this year in 63 cities with populations of more than 250,000 declined by at least 15% and murders were down at least 19% in 246 cities with populations under 250,000, Asher’s research found.
“It’s a tremendous achievement in terms of how far murder has fallen in just really two straight years,” Asher said.
Property crime plummets
In addition to violent crime falling, property crime is also poised to finish the year down 8.6% nationwide, mostly due to a 21.4% decrease in motor vehicle theft, Asher said.
“Auto thefts went up 12% last year. They’re coming down more than 20% this year,” said Asher, who added that the 2023 spike in car thefts appears to be tied to social media instruction videos on how to steal certain models of Kias and Hyundais.
Crunching the numbers
Since 2016, Asher has crunched the numbers for an end-of-the-year report on crime trends. This year, his report is based on preliminary crime statistics from 309 U.S. law enforcement agencies, the most data he has ever received.
Asher’s analysis aligns closely with data released in May by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing murders down 14%. The Gun Violence Archive, a website that tracks all shootings across the nation, shows homicides are down around 11%.
“We kind of put all those together and we see a very large decline in murder, a very large decline in gun violence happening in the U.S. in 2024 on top of what was a very large decline in murder and a very large decline in gun violence in 2023,” Asher said.
“We kind of put all those together and we see a very large decline in murder, a very large decline in gun violence happening in the U.S. in 2024 on top of what was a very large decline in murder and a very large decline in gun violence in 2023,” Asher said.
The numbers also come just days after a 15-year-old girl allegedly carried out a shooting rampage at her Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin, killing a teacher and a classmate, and injuring six other students before dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
The Wisconsin shooting came three months after a 14-year-old boy allegedly killed two students and two teachers, and injured nine others at his high school in Winder, Georgia, with an AR-style weapon police alleged his father gave him as a Chrismas present.
‘We have turned the tide against violent crime’
During a Dec. 10 briefing of the Justice Department’s Violence Crime Reduction Steering Committee meeting, Attorney General Merrick Garland said preliminary crime data showed significant declines in violent crime in 85 cities in 2024, including a 17.5% drop in homicides nationwide.
“Over the past two years, we have turned the tide against the violent crime that spiked during the pandemic,” Garland said.
He said the numbers build on the historic drop in homicides nationwide last year, which he said was the lowest level of violent crime in 50 years.
Merrick attributed the tumbling violent crime rate partly to the DOJ’s Violent Crime Reduction Roadmap, a one-stop-shop created to assist local jurisdictions in developing, implementing and evaluating the strategies to prevent, intervene and respond to acts of community gun violence.
President Joe Biden’s administration has also sought to curb gun violence in recent years through executive actions and signing into law in 2022 the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which enhanced background checks for gun buyers under the age of 21, allocated $750 million to help states implement “red flag laws” to remove firearms from people deemed dangerous to themselves and others.
Biden also established the in 2023 the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention to focus on ways to assist states and cities reduce the nation’s epidemic of gun violence.
Some cities such as Philadelphia have credited the work of violence interrupter programs, community-based initiatives that use peacebuilding methods to head off incidents of violence before they occur.
In Philadelphia, city leaders also pointed to a $184 million investment in gun violence initiatives in 2022, including one that attempts to identify people who are at risk of being involved in violence to provide them with mental health services or job placement. While the city also boosted the Philadelphia Police Department’s budget that year by $30 million, it instituted a violence prevention plan that emphasizes a combination of law enforcement strategies, environmental improvements and youth programs to reduce its homicide numbers.
“We need to continue pressing forward with our comprehensive approach, which is prevention, intervention and enforcement,” Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said at a Nov. 1 news conference on the city’s falling homicide numbers.
In October, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed six bills to strengthen New York’s gun laws, including one requiring gun sellers to post tobacco-style safety warnings and another that cracks down on illegal devices called “switches” that convert semiautomatic handguns into automatic weapons.
Asher said that in 2020 and 2021 when violent crime rose to alarming levels, programs such as community violence interruptors didn’t exist and the budgets of many police departments were getting slashed in the defund-the-police movement stemming from nationwide protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Asher said states and local governments, as well as philanthropies, are pumping money into programs to bring down violent crime.
“Some of that is undoubtedly contributing to what we’re seeing now,” Asher said. “I’m not naïve enough to suggest that that’s the entire explanation. There are undoubtedly a multitude of factors that help to explain this complex problem.”
ABC News’ Calvin Milliner contributed to this report.
