Parents invest in beach safety robots after couple’s death [Video]

SOUTH HAVEN, Mich. — Nearly two years ago, Lisa MacDonald says she got a phone call that changed her life forever.

“It was absolutely the worst day of my life. I heard accident water accident, she didn’t survive and I just I lost it,” said MacDonald.

While out shopping, she got a call from the father of her daughter’s boyfriend. He was crying and frantic trying to explain that her daughter, Emily MacDonald and Emily’s boyfriend, Kory Ernster, had drowned in Lake Michigan in South Haven.

She said it was something she never saw coming.

“She’s a good swimmer, Kory was a good swimmer. I would have never thought a water accident, a drowning accident would have been what took the two of them,” said MacDonald.

After grieving the loss, she decided to throw herself into advocacy by working with the Ernsters and other activist to increase beach safety and get life guards on beaches.

And recently, she came …