Did a Surgeon Accidently Shoot a Sales Rep?

A very tragic and strange story crossed our desks last week.

In Cayce, South Carolina a 46-year old orthopedic surgeon has been accused of fatally shooting William Holland, a sales rep employed by CrossLink Orthopaedics, one of Stryker’s largest distributors.

According to the police initially, this was a tragic, horrible gun accident.

In their first recounting of events, the police said that the surgeon, Adam Lazzarini, M.D., had been traveling with Holland in Georgia on business and while having dinner and under the influence of alcohol, he pointed a handgun at Holland’s chest. The gun discharged.

This happened in October 2017, almost 9 months ago.

Then events seemed to spiral out of control.

In early May 2018, Dr. Lazzarini’s wife, Vanessa Biery, was found dead inside their home.

While investigating Biery’s death, authorities say they uncovered evidence that Lazzarini had lied about the Holland case and that the two deaths were related. The coroner’s office has not given a cause of Biery’s death.

Accounts which have been written in the Cayce local paper, The State, say that Dr. Lazzarini’s wife, Vanessa Biery, was found dead inside their home. Police say her death is suspicious, and that the shooting of Holland in October and the death of Biery are related.

The Cayce television station WLTX, reported that after Lazzarini called paramedics, he turned himself in and was then charged in connection with Holland’s death. No charges have been filed on Biery’s death.

Police are now charging Dr. Lazzarini with involuntary manslaughter and obstruction of justice.

Tem Miles, the lawyer for the Holland family, reportedly said the two were solely professional acquaintances. He added that there was no evidence to support a close relationship between the two. Lazzarini’s father, Robert Lazzarini, told the local paper that the two were friends.

Lazzarini earned a bachelor’s degree in physiology from the University of California-Davis. He then received a medical degree from New York Medical College, and after finishing his residency at Westchester Medical Center, he stayed on to teach other medical students at the college. He became a specialist in hip replacement surgery. He completed a Fellowship at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, in adult reconstruction and hip arthroscopy.

Lazzarini, his wife and daughter moved to South Carolina in 2016 when Lazzarini joined Southeastern Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine, which is affiliated with Lexington Medical Center’s physician practice on the hospital campus in West Columbia.