A bike ride before dinner. He never came home.

Kenneth Najarian left his Charlotte home at 5:20 p.m. Wednesday to take a bicycle ride before he and his wife were scheduled to host friends for dinner around 6 p.m.

"He said he was going for a quick bike ride, and he would be back," Krissi Najarian said. "But he wasn't back."

The guests arrived. There was no answer when Krissi Najarian called her husband. Worried, she and her two children left their guests at the house to look for the missing doctor.

"I couldn't find him anywhere," Krissi Najarian said. "I was afraid he went into some tall brush. That's when I came upon the accident scene."

Najarian, known as Ken, a radiologist at the University of Vermont Medical Center, was struck by a car and killed at about 5:50 p.m. Wednesday. Police say the driver, Holly Gonyeau, 36, of Ferrisburgh, was drunk.

Najarian became the third cyclist killed on Vermont roads in two months.

Gonyeau's southbound 2013 Chevrolet Cruze sedan hit Najarian, 60, as he was riding south at 872 Greenbush Rd. in Ferrisburgh, the Vermont State Police said. Najarian died at the scene.

Gonyeau, the wife of 15-year veteran Williston police officer Keith Gonyeau, was cited on a charge of first-offense driving under the influence. She is scheduled to appear June 29 in Vermont Superior Court in Middlebury.

It was unknown whether she has retained a lawyer. Most times the defense lawyer becomes known after a criminal charge is filed in court. A man who answered a phone call Thursday evening to a Ferrisburgh listing for Gonyeau and her husband said the number had been changed some time ago.

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Lives 'destroyed'

The road on which Najarian was killed was part of his regular biking route and had little traffic, Krissi Najarian told the Burlington Free Press on Thursday.

"He always felt safe," she said.

That road is a wide-open straightaway with plenty of field of vision, said Susan Rand, president of Sojourn Bicycling and Active Vacations.

Gonyeau's preliminary breath test showed a 0.123 percent blood alcohol content, police said. Adult drivers are presumed to be under the influence at 0.08 percent.

"It's unfathomable to imagine how many lives are destroyed because of that one action," Krissi Najarian said. She added that she hopes the woman responsible will "go to jail for a very long time."

Gonyeau was spared arrest and jail custody after the crash Wednesday because she was cited on suspicion only of first-offense drunken driving. The protocol for that charge is to cite and release the suspect, said Scott Waterman, a state police spokesman.

Vermont has a crime of DUI resulting in death, but so far that allegation has not been used in this case.

"At this point, there is only probable cause for the DUI first offense," Waterman said Thursday. "The rest of the incident is under investigation. There has been no determination at this point for fault in the fatality. If there are facts that are revealed that support another charge, we would work with the state attorney on that."

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DUI with death resulting requires proof that the intoxicated driver, rather than other conditions, caused the death, Essex County State's Attorney Vince Illuzzi said. He is uninvolved in the Gonyeau case and spoke about Vermont law generally.

The investigation into the crash is continuing. Anyone with information or who witnessed the wreck is asked to contact Trooper Brett Flansburg at 388-4919.

Najarian's death is the third fatality in a vehicle-bicycle crash in nine weeks in Vermont — all occurring within 20 miles in western Vermont. Four people — three cyclists and one car driver — have been killed.

Treated trauma patients

Ken Najarian worked in radiology at UVM Medical Center and taught in the College of Medicine. He often treated people injured in bicycle and vehicle crashes, his colleagues said.

Najarian was a leader in the interventional radiology section, where he worked for 30 years.

"Ken spent all of his working career in Vermont oftentimes treating trauma patients who were in bike and car accidents," said Anthony Dinizio, a UVM resident doctor who worked with Najarian. "His job was to stop internal bleeding."

He also was a professor and started UVM's fellowship program in interventional radiology in 1995, said colleague Dr. Christopher Morris. Najarian worked with several hundred students, resident doctors and fellows, Morris said.

"He touched a lot of lives over 30 years," Dinizio said. "Radiologists around the country learned things from Ken that they practice every day."

Najarian is survived by his wife and two stepchildren, Jared Helfman, 22, and Shannon Helfman, 16.

"We loved him," Krissi Najarian said. "He was the most kind, giving, generous and selfless man and the most wonderful husband and father anybody could ever have."

Family man, innovator

Najarian was nearly 50 when he and Krissi were married in 2004.

"He became a family man later in life and really relished being a family man," Morris said.

He had zest for life, his friends and family said. He loved his work. He indulged his hobbies, including drumming, kite boarding, snowboarding, boating and bicycling.

"I was in a band with him, and we used to get together and play every week or two," Dinizio said.

Ken Najarian named the band Titled Filter in reference to a medical device used for treating people with blood clots in their legs.

"He wanted to name the band for something he loved," Dinizio said. "It's sort of an inside joke for internal radiologists."

Morris worked closely with Ken Najarian in the interventional radiology section. Interventional radiology centers on innovative minimally invasive procedures and techniques that use image guidance. Najarian started in the section in 1988; Morris started in 1991 when Najarian recruited him.

"He was the first physician in Vermont to introduce modern and innovative interventional radiology techniques," Morris said. "He was instrumental in developing the section and adding innumerable procedures that help patients."

When Najarian joined UVM, the hospital had a nascent section of interventional radiology.

"He had a vision to build it up into a very important and modern section over the years," Morris said.

Before Najarian joined UVM, there were about 10-15 procedures performed in the interventional radiology section.

"He brought an experience with him from his fellowship that increased that number to 50 to 60," Morris said. "All of us continued to add and learn new procedures and techniques so we now perform over 130 techniques and procedures."

"He left us way too soon," Morris said. "He had so much still to look forward to. He wanted to continue interventional radiology for many years to come."

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Contributing: Elizabeth Murray and Mike Donoghue, Free Press. Contact Paris Achen at 802-660-1874 and pachen@freepressmedia.com. Follow her atwww.twitter.com/parisachen and https://www.facebook.com/ColTrends.