Plymouth man drowns in Tennessee lake - saves fiancé, friends

DETROIT (WJBK) - WEB UPDATE: A GoFundMe account was created to help the family. CLICK HERE to donate.

A Plymouth man was killed while on a boating trip on vacation in Tennessee. According to family members, he died when the waters got choppy and he saved his fiancé's life.

Andrew Ehrman was out for an evening swim on his fun-filled weekend in Tennessee. But strong winds and waves turned that decision into tragedy for the man who is now being called a hero.

"He saw someone struggling and instinctively his body told him go back and get her," Katrina Mazzocco said.

She said her 30-year-old brother made it back to the boat amid the the weather but when he saw his friends and fiancé struggling, he went back in to help them. It cost him his life.

"He used the last of his energy to push Amanda back to the boat. she got within 5-10 feet to the boat. Before they knew it, they didn't see him anymore," she said.

The father to an 8-year-old boy is from Plymouth. He and his friends went to Tennessee for the holiday weekend and had boarded a pontoon boat Friday evening for a swim that turned tragic.

"It really makes you think of how fragile life is because if this could have happened so quickly to someone so young and full of life..." she said.

Ehrman was a mechanical engineer, a father, brother, and son. His decision cost his life but it saved a life.

"He made a decision - the most selfless decision that you can make - that anyone can make and he made that decision and it cost him his life," Mazzocco said. "It's just important that everyone knows that he was heroic in that aspect."