Paul Caneiro came under a microscope in 2008, a decade before police say he killed his brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew.
Paul Caneiro is accused of being a murderer, thief, arsonist and insurance cheat in a shocking case involving the killings of his brother and sister-in-law and their two young children.
Authorities allege Caneiro, 53, torched his brother’s Colts Neck mansion in an attempt to cover up the murders and set fire to his own home to divert suspicion away from himself.
Now, it’s revealed that the suspicious fire at Paul Caneiro’s home in Ocean Township in 2018, on the same day his brother’s family was found murdered, wasn’t the first.
Ten years earlier, a blaze that started in a closet in the master bedroom at Paul Caneiro’s home netted him an insurance payout exceeding $26,000, according to a court document.
Police brought in Caneiro and his wife to question them about that blaze, but no charges were ever filed, even though the fire was labeled suspicious, the document said.
“Police investigation eliminated all accidental and natural causes for the fire,’’ the document said.
That information is contained on the next to last page of a 17-page motion filed by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office seeking to admit statements made by Paul Caneiro as evidence against him at his upcoming trial for murder, arson, theft and related crimes.
Caneiro has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Prosecutors aren’t seeking to admit evidence about the 2008 fire at the murder trial. Instead, they used it to argue that Paul Caneiro, having been questioned about it by detectives, understood his rights to an attorney and to remain silent when he spoke to police 10 years later about the second fire at his home. That fire broke out hours before his brother’s family was found slain 10 miles away, on the grounds of their smoldering estate in Colts Neck.
Unanswered questions in 2008
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The case has been on hold amid a moratorium on jury trials because of the COVID-19 pandemic.