Elizabeth Pollard

Elizabeth Pollard (née Jeffries, previously Feldmann) was the wife of Eric Pollard and the mother of Michael and Elsa Feldmann. She married Eric in October 1992 and was killed in the plane crash that devastated the village the following year.
For years there was speculation that Eric had murdered her as she knew about his cheque fraud and about a stolen Roman bracelet that he tried to frame her son Michael for. 
In 2011, 17 years after her death, it was revealed she had died from debris from the burning plane that fateful December night in 1993.
==Biography==
===Early life===
Elizabeth Jeffries, daughter of Barry Jeffries and his wife Constance Jeffries, was born on 3rd May 1947. She grew up with a sister named Margaret.
In the 1960s Elizabeth married a man in the 1960s with whom she had two children, Michael and Elsa Feldmann in 1966 and 1972 respectively. The family lived in Beckindale in the 1970s.
===Time in the village===
Elizabeth arrived in the village with her son Michael and daughter Elsa in March 1990. She found herself fighting for the affections of Alan Turner and Eric Pollard. Elizabeth chose Eric and married him in October 1992. She didn't know that Eric was still married to his first wife Eileen and was committing bigamy. She hoped to change him when they married in October 1992. This was not to be.
Elizabeth later found that Eric had planted a typewriter on her son Michael in order to hide the fact that he had been committing cheque fraud and was prepared to let Michael take the blame.
===Death and legacy===
On 30th December 1993, she left him, Elizabeth left Eric, informing him that she would report him to the police. He tried to dissuade her, saying that if she reported him, she herself would face prosecution for her role in the theft of antique vases, however, Elizabeth admitted that her own imprisonment would be worth that of Eric's. She then left Victoria Cottage and went to Demdyke Row to babysit for her granddaughter Alice Bates. Eric later followed her and asked her what her intentions were. He demanded the papers for the stolen Roman bracelet and when he said he had been going through her things, she slapped him and stormed out to report him.
A few seconds after Elizabeth stormed out of the house, Eric followed her out. She was never seen alive again as a huge Eastern European airliner exploded 30'000 feet above the village and crashed. Offscreen, Eric followed her across a field as she was on her way to see Frank Tate. The tree nearby burst into flames and the night sky lit up, as fire and debris from the plane fell down. Eric backed away and then a short time later, he saw she was dead. The following morning, her body was found in a field near the village. However on the actual night of the crash, Eric pretended he did not know what happened to her, and even went calling for her across the village while walking around. 
In January 1994, her son Michael, along with a few other villagers believed Eric had murdered her and used the plane crash as a cover-up, to stop her from exposing his fraudulent activities. This was strengthened when Eric insisted Elizabeth was cremated rather than buried. Also, Michael wondered what his mother was doing in a field at that time of night when she was killed in the plane crash. The insistence by Eric that Elizabeth's body was cremated rather than buried made Michael more suspicious. In the end, she was buried and Michael soon left Beckindale in June 1994 having no evidence against Eric, but more so that he knocked Eric out during an argument and thought he killed him. Michael fled for the airport. Eric recovered and was happy that his thorn in his side had gone. It must have been several years before Michael found out that Eric was still alive, but he waited for a perfect moment to carry on his revenge plan.
Nearly seventeen years after her death, in December 2010, Eric started to receive notes, messages and Christmas greetings, signed from Elizabeth. Originally believing them to be from Amy Wyatt, it later transpired that Elizabeth's son Michael had been sending the notes and returned to the village after 16 years of absence, in order to make Eric pay for the murder of his mother.
Eric told his current wife Val on 3rd January 2011 about the night of the plane crash 17 years before and stated the events leading up to her death such as about the cheque fraud and stolen Roman bracelet. He then stated that he went round to see her then after a brief row she had stormed out of the house and he followed her, caught up with her and tried to get her to listen and that she had run off into the night screaming but a tree near her burst into flames as plane wreckage shot down and the sky lit up. Eric explains that he went back a bit later and found her dead. On the 4th January 2011, Val obtained the coroners report into Elizabeth's death which confirmed she had been killed by falling debris from the plane. Michael was forced to admit defeat and wanted to return the money he blackmailed Eric out of. Eric told him to keep it and make a new start. Michael then left the B&B, got into his car and drove out of the village into the night.
In May 2011, Eric mentioned her when he and his son David were looking for Amy in Hotten.
In October 2015, over 21 years after her death, Elizabeth was mentioned by Lawrence White when he bullied Eric into silence about giving evidence against his daughter. Lawrence then said "An ex-wife who died under mysterious circumstances. What was her name, Elizabeth?". Yet again, what happened to Elizabeth came back to haunt Eric, and Eric did not testify against Chrissie because of it.
==Quotes==
"This is my son Michael." (First line)
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"Would you keep your voice down? Alice is asleep! [Alice wakes up and starts crying] Now you've woken her, you stupid man!" (To Eric Pollard after his shouting makes Alice Bates wake up)
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"I want you to get what you deserve and hopefully, that's a jail sentence. Don't underestimate how I feel about you." (To Eric on going to the police about his cheque fraud)
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"Stay here until I come back!" (Final line)
==See also==
*Full list of appearances
Category:Emmerdale characters
Category:1993 deaths
Category:1990 debuts
Category:1993 departures
Category:Feldmann family
Category:Pollard family
Category:1947 births
Category:1992 marriages
Category:Residents of Victoria Cottage