What to Know
- Man charged with killing his brother, brother's wife and their two children in their NJ mansion is facing new charge of insurance fraud
- Caneiro’s next court appearance is scheduled for July 29. He remains detained pending trial.
- Caneiro was previously indicted on charges of murder, felony murder, aggravated arson and a weapons offenses
The New Jersey businessman accused of killing his young niece and nephew, along with their parents, inside their Colts Neck mansion before setting it on fire days before Thanksgiving is facing additional charges, prosecutors say.
Paul J. Caneiro, 51, of Ocean Township, was indicted by a grand jury on one count of second-degree insurance fraud, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced Tuesday.
According to the indictment, Caneiro received disability payments from an insurance company related to a Nov. 2012 car accident, while continuing to work at two family businesses. His income from those businesses was then allegedly paid to his wife, who did not work there.
Caneiro was previously indicted on charges of murder, felony murder, aggravated arson and a weapons offense. He also faces counts of theft, misapplication of entrusted property and hindering his own apprehension. He pleaded not guilty to this first set of charges in March.
The charges stem from the deaths of his brother Keith; Keith's wife Jennifer, and their two young children, aged 8 and 10. Their bodies were found after a fire broke out at their Colts Neck home on Nov. 20.
Caneiro’s next court appearance is scheduled for July 29. He remains detained pending trial.
A message was left with Caneiro’s defense attorney Tuesday.
Local
Authorities have alleged Caneiro shot his brother, shot and stabbed his sister-in-law and stabbed the children before dawn that day, then set the mansion on fire and returned home in Ocean Township to set fire to his own home as his wife and two adult daughters slept upstairs.
After his arrest in that fire, his then-lawyers said his family believed he had rescued them. Authorities don't believe he meant to harm his immediate family.
Officials have said the motive for the murders appears to be money. The Caneiro brothers had started a computer consulting business in Brooklyn that had grown to have 26 employees by 2001, with clients including Citibank. They had renamed it Square One, and moved to the quieter New Jersey suburbs.
They married and started families — with each brother standing up for the other at their weddings — and added a pest control company along the way.
Caneiro was about to be cut off from their technology company after money allegedly went missing from the firm, according to previous court filings.
