KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Stormy weather this weekend led to a boating tragedy for a Plymouth man at a lake near Knoxville, Tennessee.
The drowning victim, Andrew Ehrman, 30, is being hailed as a hero after he pushed his fiancee, Amanda Quartz, to safety while they swam in stormy weather in Cherokee Lake.
"It was totally calm, and the sun came out, and we'd really wanted to take a dip," Quartz said. "So we jumped in, and all of a sudden, in an instant, everything changed. Just like that it got stormy, and we knew something was wrong and we tried to get back on the boat."
The couple had visited Quartz's grandmother Friday with a group of friends. They got into the water off her great uncle's pontoon boat.
Quartz said she saw the wind push the family pontoon far away, and her legs started to get tired.
"I said, 'Babe, are you OK?'" Quartz said. "I just felt him push me really hard, with all his strength, toward the boat as it was coming, and that was it."
Quartz made it to the boat, but Ehrman didn't.
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency searched for Ehrman's body for two days.
Quartz said she and Ehrman were together for a year and planned to get married. They bought a Plymouth house as Ehrman worked in real estate on the side while working as a mechanical engineer for an auto supplier.
"I want people to remember how funny he was, how smart and clever, and just all the good that he did," Quartz said. "He hustles so hard, harder than anyone I've ever met, and I just want people to remember that, and he's a hero because that's what he is."
Officials said the incident serves as a reminder to use life jackets while swimming off a boat. All four people who went into the water Friday were not wearing life jackets.