A nightmare of a trip to Costa Rica in October is still making headlines this Thanksgiving weekend: four Americans drowned in a rafting accident while celebrating a friend’s upcoming wedding. The heartbreaking story is raising questions about safety regulations in foreign countries and it touched a nerve with a woman in Connecticut.

Sara Horwitz of West Hartford has her own nightmare of a story with a dateline of Costa Rica.  Her father also drowned there and now she is telling her story in the hopes of saving other families from the pain and suffering her family went through.

Her mother Bonni did some investigating and is now sharing what she learned. Why couldn’t Richard Horwitz be saved and why was the worst day of Sara’s life made more difficult due to a local law?

It is never easy to talk about the death of a loved one, especially in the glare of  television cameras, but Sara and Bonni are moving beyond their grief to help others which helps them heal. Watch my interview with these brave women Sunday morning on WFSB on Eyewitness News This Morning starting at 6 AM.

I should  point out Sara doesn’t want to talk people out of visiting Costa Rica, she describes it as a beautiful country, but she wants people to aware of a potential danger there and how to be prepared.