Brother of Man Killed in Suspicious New Jersey Fire Is Charged in Another Fire

Raised in Brooklyn, the brothers Keith and Paul Caneiro married women from Staten Island and moved to houses in suburban New Jersey about 20 minutes apart. In 1991, Keith was the best man at Paul’s wedding. They each had children and were business partners, co-owning a technology company and a pest control business.

But now Keith Caneiro is dead, killed on Tuesday along with his wife and children in their stately home in Colts Neck, New Jersey, which was then set on fire, law enforcement officials said.

Paul Caneiro, 51, was arrested Wednesday and charged with setting his own house on fire in nearby Ocean Township on the same day his brother’s family was found dead. His wife and two daughters were at home when he lit the blaze, a charging document said.

While the two events seemed to be linked, Christopher Gramiccioni, the Monmouth County prosecutor, did not name a suspect Wednesday in the killings of Keith Caneiro, 50; his wife, Jennifer Karidis Caneiro, 45; and their two children, Jesse, 11, and Sophia, 8.

He added, however, that residents of the area did not need to be concerned that a random killer was loose among them.

“We believe that in some form or fashion that this family was targeted,” Gramiccioni said. He said the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were involved in the investigation.

He said one reason no charges had been filed in the killings was that investigators did not yet have full access to the smoldering ruins of Keith Caneiro’s 5,700-square-foot home.

Gramiccioni added that the quadruple homicide scene was “one of most heinous cases” that investigators had ever seen.

The brothers appeared to have close ties, owning two businesses together: Square One, the technology consulting firm, and EcoStar Pest Management, the pest control firm, both in the same building on Cookman Avenue in Asbury Park.

About 5 a.m. Tuesday, the police received a report of a fire burning at 27 Tilton Drive in Ocean Township, Paul Caneiro’s home. According to the charging document, Caneiro is accused of using gasoline to set the fire. His wife, Susan Caneiro, and two grown daughters were home at the time, the document said. No injuries occurred in that fire.

The Colts Neck fire started in the four-bedroom home at 15 Willow Brook Road just after 12:30 p.m. A cloud of gray smoke hung over the house hours later, as firefighters continued to battle it Tuesday evening.

Gramiccioni said the bodies of Jennifer Caneiro and the two children were found inside the house. Keith Caneiro’s body was found outside the house with gunshot wounds, he said.

The children’s bodies were so badly burned they could not immediately be identified, Gramiccioni said.

Paul Caneiro was charged with arson in the Ocean Township fire and is due in court Nov. 28.

News of the gruesome killings rattled the affluent enclave of Colts Neck just days before Thanksgiving. Bruce Springsteen has a home there, as does David Bryan, who plays keyboard in the band Bon Jovi.

On Wednesday evening, more than 150 people gathered outside Colts Neck Township Town Hall for a vigil that was marked mostly by silence. The mayor, who was a friend of the family, spoke as he fought back tears.

“A lot of people are asking for answers,” Mayor Joseph “J.P.” Bartolomeo said. “There’s no answers.” He described Jesse as a baseball player and said his younger sister, Sophia, was a cheerleader.

Jesse was in the fifth grade, and Sophia was in the third grade at Conover Road Elementary School, parents of classmates at the vigil said.

“She was a very sweet little girl,” recalled Greg Greicius, 40, who said his daughter was friends with Sophia. “They played soccer together. They had play dates.”

Earlier, David Natelson, the business manager of the pest control firm owned by the brothers, said he was deeply shaken by the events.

“I am shocked,” Natelson said in a phone interview. “And saddened.” The two brothers grew up in Brooklyn, with Keith attending John Dewey High School, and Paul attending Abraham Lincoln High School, according to Paul’s 1991 wedding announcement in the Staten Island Advance.

Keith, who graduated in 1985, showed an early aptitude for computers. While in high school, he got a job as a janitor at a computer store, just to be near the equipment. He later became a salesman and eventually started a computer consulting firm with his brother, according to a 2001 article in the Asbury Park Press about the business. At the time, he went by the name Keith Martin, using his middle name as his last.

The company was called Jay-Martin Consulting, which derived from the middle names of both brothers. Paul was the first employee.

Both men attended Brooklyn College, and Keith went on to study for an executive master’s degree in technology management at Columbia University, according to his Facebook page. He recently posted a picture of himself smiling with his wife in a pale blue Columbia cap and gown. Jennifer Caneiro’s Facebook page showed multiple pictures of Jesse playing at a local gymnastics studio when he was a toddler.