4 Found Dead After Suspicious Fire at Tech Consultant’s Home in New Jersey

Two adults and two children were found dead Tuesday after a possible arson fire engulfed a large, stately home in central New Jersey — hours after another fire erupted nearby at a house owned by a relative, officials said.

Officials are investigating both blazes to determine if the two incidents are related, the Monmouth County prosecutor, Christopher J. Gramiccioni, said at a news conference.

“That remains to be seen,” he said, “but that is an option or an angle we continue to pursue.”

The deadly fire that broke out in Colts Neck, New Jersey, around lunchtime and continued to burn into the evening was being investigated as a possible arson, Gramiccioni said.

Gramiccioni said three of the bodies were found inside the home in Colts Neck, roughly 50 miles southwest of New York City. The fourth, a man, was found dead outside the burning house. Officials have not released the names of the victims.

Gramiccioni would not say whether a weapon was involved in any of the four deaths, but he said the medical examiner would be conducting an investigation.

The fire started in the four-bedroom home on Willow Brook Road just after 12:30 p.m. A cloud of gray smoke continued to hang over the house hours later, as firefighters continued to battle it on Tuesday evening.

One firefighter was injured at the scene, Gramiccioni said, but the injuries were not severe.

One neighbor who lives on a nearby farm said the blaze continued to worsen as firefighters struggled to bring it under control.

The house is owned by Keith Caneiro, 50, and Jennifer Caneiro, 45, according to public records. Neighbors said that the couple lived there with their son and daughter, and that both children were less than 10 years old.

A LinkedIn profile for Caneiro indicates that he runs a technology consulting company named Square One in Asbury Park. Repeated calls to the company were not answered.

The earlier fire at a single-family home on Tilton Drive in suburban Ocean Township was reported Tuesday morning, Gramiccioni said. Neighbors on Tilton Drive said they awoke to the sounds of firefighters putting out flames on the roof.

That home is owned by Susan and Paul Caneiro, records show.

Paul Caneiro and Keith Caneiro appear to have worked together at Square One, as well as at a consulting business, Jay-Martin Consulting, and they shared an address in Staten Island for more than a decade.

Kevin Harrington, a neighbor who lives across the street from the Caneiros family in Ocean Township, said he saw some members of the family sitting in a car outside their home.

“They’re wonderful people,” Harrington said. “It’s pretty shocking stuff.”

On Tuesday night, the house was surrounded by police tape, and a police car stood watch outside. Its facade appeared intact, and any damage to the house was not immediately evident.

Colts Neck is an affluent community where the median household income was $162,083 in 2016, census data shows. The rock musician Bruce Springsteen has a home there, as does David Bryan, who plays keyboard in the band Bon Jovi.