The trial for New Jersey businessman Paul Caneiro for allegedly murdering four family members and torching two homes — including his own — is set to begin Monday.
Caneiro is accused of fatally shooting his brother, 50-year-old Keith Caneiro, in his driveway in 2018, then shooting and stabbing Keith’s wife, Jennifer Caneiro, 45, and stabbing the couple’s son Jesse, 11, and daughter Sophia, 8, inside their home. He then went to the basement and set the mansion ablaze, leaving the bodies of Jennifer and the children to burn. A few hours earlier, the home of Keith’s brother Paul Caneiro, 51, had also caught fire, but he and his family escaped.
It was a mystery that shocked the affluent Monmouth County town of Colts Neck, N.J.
After untangling a complex web of events, authorities determined Paul Caneiro had committed the slayings and set the fires as a “ruse” to cover the financial tracks left by his illegal business dealings, giving the “illusion” someone was targeting the whole family, prosecutors said at the time.
WABC via AP
Firefighters battle a fatal fire on Nov. 20, 2018, in Colts Neck, N.J. (WABC via AP)
In the wake of what former Monmouth County prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni at the time called “the most brutal case I’ve seen in my experience,” police found that Keith Caneiro had suspected Paul was stealing from him and the companies they owned and ran together.
Caneiro pleaded not guilty and has steadfastly maintained his innocence.
With News Wire Services
