Hero in car fire rescue found dead

John Cassidy's life was beginning to change for the good.

He was in a sober house. He had found the love of his life and was embracing impending fatherhood.

To family, he was an exemplary figure. To others, he was a hero who had helped rescue a woman from a burning car in November.

Cassidy, 32, who battled drug addiction for much of his adult life, was found dead Monday in his own Riverhead apartment.

Cassidy's death "looks like an overdose," said Det. Sgt. Joseph Loggia of the Riverhead Town Police, although toxicology reports in such cases can take a month or more.

Cassidy's fiancee, Alexis Oliveri, 23, of Selden, and his brother, Don Baglivi, 36, of Ronkonkoma, don't believe drugs played a part in Cassidy's death. Oliveri said Cassidy was clean in the eight months they were together.

A funeral Mass for Cassidy will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, Ronkonkoma. He will be cremated.

On Nov. 27, Cassidy, who had struggled with cocaine since the end of high school, and Brian Husfeldt, 51, of North Lindenhurst, were returning from treatment in Riverhead to an Aquebogue sober house.

As their van approached Middle Road and Northville Turnpike in Riverhead, Cassidy and Husfeldt saw a burning Honda, hit moments before by a pickup truck that police said had run a red light.

Along with passersby, Cassidy and Husfeldt pulled the driver, Waltrud Gormar, 70, of Riverhead, from the burning car and carried her to safety.

Cassidy then broke the back window with a piece of metal to try to free Gormar's son, Dean Nilsson, 47, of Smithtown, who was pinned on the passenger side. As Cassidy prepared to crawl through, firefighters arrived and began to cut Nilsson free.

After the rescue, Cassidy told Newsday: "If I had an ounce of crack in my pocket, I might not have stopped. I'm just glad I was able to do it."

Husfeldt and Cassidy were scheduled to visit Gormar on Friday, the first time they were to see her since the rescue. Husfeldt went to the meeting alone. When told of Cassidy's death, "she was upset. There were tears," he said. Gormar declined to speak to Newsday.

Cassidy and Oliveri had moved in together in January and were planning their wedding, she said. Their son is due in August, she said.

Cassidy's grandmother, Elizabeth Baglivi, 92, who raised him and his two siblings in her Ronkonkoma home, said that recently, there was "something different in his eyes, in his face." She continued, "It was like he wanted finally to make something good of himself."

Cassidy's brother, Don Baglivi, said, "He [Cassidy] was basically good, but a person who had lapses. And every time he had one, he hated it. He hated himself for it."

Oliveri and Don Baglivi said they will remember Cassidy for his giving personality. They said he loved cooking and helping family and recently had painted a bathroom for his grandmother.

Husfeldt, who knew Cassidy for about 18 months, said, "John was very good about helping other people, but he always wasn't that good about helping himself."

Oliveri said she will remember the man of good character who stopped to help at the scene of that fiery Riverhead crash in November.

"I was proud of him, and his family was proud of him," she said. "But to John, it was really nothing. It was just something someone needed to do."