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Lester Holt

Tonight on Dateline.

Monica Guy

I still dream about it. I dream about them still. A house fire, a family. Horrific doesn't even begin to describe what it is. What it still is.

Interviewer/Reporter

You've got a mansion that you're responding to.

Monica Guy

Yes.

Detective/Investigator

It's an urgent response.

Firefighter Mike Whitehill

Looked like a combination of fire and something more sinister.

Mayor J.P. Bartolomeo

It's a crime scene. It seems that the entire family is gone.

Interviewer/Reporter

You're best friends, just absolutely devastated.

Ripley Burgess

I was just so sad and heartbroken

Asher Burgess

when I found out it was murder. I was like, who did it? Can we catch this person?

Narrator/Storyteller

There was a camera. You could see this figure through the garage door.

Mayor J.P. Bartolomeo

Is it a hitman? Was it revenge?

Interviewer/Reporter

You find out There has been another

Narrator/Storyteller

fire in a neighboring town.

Mayor J.P. Bartolomeo

Yes. And it's the brother's home.

Narrator/Storyteller

Two brothers. Houses are on fire.

Alarm bell's going off.

Lieutenant Patrick Petruzillo

They're starting to. Yes.

Narrator/Storyteller

What is going on in this family that we need to know?

Interviewer/Reporter

It's like evil washed over the town.

Monica Guy

Absolutely evil washed over the town.

Lester Holt

Two fires, four deaths and one terrifying twist murders at the mansion. I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline. Here's andrea canning.

Narrator/Storyteller

With slow burn.

With its sprawling estates and quiet country roads, there's a little town in New Jersey called Colts Neck, not too far from the hustle and bustle of New York City.

Mayor J.P. Bartolomeo

It's a great town. Lots of horse farms, lots of golf courses, lots of open space, great people, affluent town.

Narrator/Storyteller

It's where Keith Canaro, a successful entrepreneur, lived with his wife Jennifer and their young children.

Monica Guy

They built their lives, they built their business, they built their home. They built their family. They made a positive impact on the

Narrator/Storyteller

community for Keith and his two brothers. Who lived nearby. It was a world away from their humble beginnings in working class Brooklyn. The kind of community where people felt safe until November 20, 2018. Just before Thanksgiving, a call came into dispatch at 12:33pm Keith's house was on fire. 911, where's the emergency?

Monica Guy

Hi, my neighbor's across the street.

Narrator/Storyteller

There's a lot of smoke coming out of the house. A minute later, a different caller. That's my neighbors from behind me. I open the door and there is smoke coming out and there's a person laying down. Where are they laying down on the property. There's somebody is dead here. Multiple fire crews responded, including the all volunteer Adelphia company firefighters, Carmelo LaMarca and Mike Whitehill.

Interviewer/Reporter

What are you told is going on with this fire? This.

Mayor J.P. Bartolomeo

It was announced over the radio that there was a mother and two children in the house.

Firefighter Mike Whitehill

It was probably as urgent as it gets.

Interviewer/Reporter

And this is sirens blaring. You're peeling out of this fire station.

Firefighter Mike Whitehill

That's correct.

Narrator/Storyteller

Local and county investigators also raced to the scene, including Lieutenant Patrick Petruzillo and Sergeant Stephen Vogt with the Monmouth County Prosecutor's office and Colt's Neck Detective Richard Zurillo.

Interviewer/Reporter

What do you see as you arrive at the house?

Lieutenant Patrick Petruzillo

Saw the house. We saw smoke coming out once we entered the property. There was possibly a deceased victim in the front yard of the house.

Interviewer/Reporter

When you hear that there's someone dead in the front yard, does your mind go to. Could be a fire victim that maybe was trying to escape the fire.

Lieutenant Patrick Petruzillo

It could be a victim of any kind. We don't know who the person is, how they got there, what the circumstances were.

Interviewer/Reporter

This is a full on active crime scene at this point.

Firefighter Carmelo LaMarca

It's also a very active fire going on with all these fire trucks. So we're trying to do our job but also not get in the way of fire suppression.

Narrator/Storyteller

Very chaotic.

Yes.

Lieutenant Patrick Petruzillo

And it's not a small scene. The house itself is a couple of acres of property. There's access points we're trying to control. A large scene. Shutting down traffic airspace.

Narrator/Storyteller

Word quickly reached then mayor J.P. bartolomeo.

Interviewer/Reporter

You had an instinct as you were

Narrator/Storyteller

driving to the scene that there was something really big to this. There was more than meets the eye.

Mayor J.P. Bartolomeo

Yes. When the information was provided to me that there was a dead body, a lot was going through my head. Confusion, concern. I was puzzled as to what was really kind of unwinding.

Narrator/Storyteller

Monica Guy, Colts Neck resident and on air news reporter, also got wind of the commotion.

Monica Guy

I was on assignment about 30 minutes away. And my assignment editor called and said, there's a really bad fire in your town. He gave me the address and I knew it was near my house.

Narrator/Storyteller

Monica also knew it was the home of Keith, Jennifer and their son and daughter Jesse and Sophia.

Monica Guy

My daughter went to the same school as Sophia.

Narrator/Storyteller

Oh my gosh.

Monica Guy

And Jessie was just a little bit older than my son.

Narrator/Storyteller

Neighbors told first responders that the children weren't in school and their mom Jennifer wasn't answering her phone.

Firefighter Mike Whitehill

As soon as we entered through the front door, there was a very, very heavy smoke condition.

Interviewer/Reporter

So you're looking for hopefully survivors in this house and you can't see a thing?

Firefighter Mike Whitehill

No.

Narrator/Storyteller

Outside, Detective Zurillo took a closer look at the body on the lawn.

Lieutenant Patrick Petruzillo

I examined him briefly, rolling him, checking to see for any signs of life. When I rolled him, I found his hands underneath his body and blood underneath him.

Narrator/Storyteller

And it appeared that he had sustained a gunshot wound.

It was Keith Canaro. He'd been shot in the head. Investigators had a mystery on the front lawn and inside the house an unthinkable horror.

Monmouth County Prosecutor

This one is the most brutal case that I've seen in my experience here.

Prosecutor Nicole Wallace

The level of planning and the level of violence was just sickening.

Interviewer/Reporter

This is like the story of Cain and Abel.

Mayor J.P. Bartolomeo

It's hard for anyone to process hardened criminal defense. Friends of mine, judges that I'm friends with, no one's ever seen anything like this.

Prosecutor Chris Decker

It comes down to greed, I think it comes down to jealousy.

Asher Burgess

There's a murderer in our town. Do we stay inside? Do we lock the doors? Just any kid would like freak out and not know what to do.

Narrator/Storyteller

50 year old Keith Canaro lay dead outside his house with a gunshot wound to the head. While detectives combed for clues, firefighters searched for his family.

Firefighter Mike Whitehill

Inside, it was zero visibility. As we climbed the stairs and got to the landing, that's when we, we encountered the first victim.

Narrator/Storyteller

Is this person alive?

Firefighter Mike Whitehill

There was no way for us to tell.

Interviewer/Reporter

Do you scoop this person up and get out of there as just fast as you possibly can?

Firefighter Mike Whitehill

As fast as we could.

Narrator/Storyteller

Once outside, he glanced down.

Interviewer/Reporter

What did you see?

Firefighter Mike Whitehill

I was able to see that it was a small female who was badly injured.

Narrator/Storyteller

It was the Canaro's eight year old daughter Sophia. She was dead. Seconds later, another horrific discovery. The bodies of 45 year old Jennifer and 11 year old Jesse. It was one of the worst things investigators had ever seen.

Interviewer/Reporter

Was it apparent to you right away how everyone had died?

Firefighter Carmelo LaMarca

Jennifer?

Ripley Burgess

No.

Firefighter Carmelo LaMarca

Certainly because of the amount of fire injuries throughout her body. You really Couldn't see anything.

Interviewer/Reporter

What injuries did the children have that were apparent?

Lieutenant Patrick Petruzillo

They had multiple stab wounds.

Interviewer/Reporter

What's that moment like when you realize this isn't just Keith on the lawn, this is the whole family?

Lieutenant Patrick Petruzillo

We try to maintain that professional aspect of it. You try to leave your emotions out of it and you work the scene.

Narrator/Storyteller

Word of the murders and apparent arson spread through Colt's Neck. Mayor Bartolomeo couldn't help but speculate.

Mayor J.P. Bartolomeo

Your brain starts to wander. Is it a hitman?

Ocean Township Police Officer

Is it.

Mayor J.P. Bartolomeo

Did they have a bad way with someone? Was it revenge? All of the above. None of the above.

Narrator/Storyteller

Even as she covered the breaking story, Monica struggled to process the loss of a family she'd known for years.

Monica Guy

It was the worst day of my career. I quickly had to shut that off and go to work.

Narrator/Storyteller

She had her own initial theory about what happened.

Monica Guy

The first thing that came to my mind was maybe it was a domestic violence situation that had escalated.

Interviewer/Reporter

Like a murder suicide?

Monica Guy

Yes, absolutely.

Narrator/Storyteller

But the more she thought about it, the less sense that made. Keith and Jennifer seemed to be so in love.

Monica Guy

I'll tell you this story, and it was shared with me. Keith and Jennifer were out on a date and Keith said, draw me the house you want to live in. And Jennifer said, okay. And it was used as the inspiration for the house that they built and lived in.

Interviewer/Reporter

He gave her her dream house.

Monica Guy

Yeah, he did.

Interviewer/Reporter

What were Keith and Jennifer like as parents? Because you. You saw them really in that. That parent environment.

Monica Guy

They were great parents. See them at different school events. I'd often see them getting their kids off the school bus. Sometimes Keith would be there and he would just be beaming.

Interviewer/Reporter

Jennifer, was she a stay at home mom?

Monica Guy

She was. She was involved in Girl Scouts and Sophia was a Brownie. She was involved with the PTA and things at school and within the community.

Narrator/Storyteller

Ripley and Asher Burgess went to school with Sophia and Jessie. They remember the moment their parents shared the heartbreaking news.

Asher Burgess

We had, like a family meeting and my dad said we had some hard news to say. Some of our really close friends have passed away.

Interviewer/Reporter

Your parents are crying. This is real.

Ripley Burgess

When they first told me, I was so confused. I just did not know how to process any of this information, really. I just was blank and I was drowning everything out.

Narrator/Storyteller

They met the Canaro siblings four years earlier and became instant best friends.

Asher Burgess

My friendship with Sophia started off with doing soccer when we were little. We both did it together, and then we both hated it. So then we tried cheer gymnastics.

Interviewer/Reporter

Where were you in the cheer order?

Asher Burgess

We were kind of on the sidelines, instead of actually doing the cheer that we were supposed to, we went on the side and danced to our own thing. And then we would get yelled at.

Interviewer/Reporter

But what do you think connected you with Jesse?

Ripley Burgess

We both really liked history. He got me into history. He had posters all in his room of World War I, World War II. We like to, like, climb around and just do stupid things.

Narrator/Storyteller

Why would anyone want to harm this loving family? Investigators needed to find out everything they could about the Canaros.

We weren't drawing any conclusions and not knowing who the Canaros were, there was a lot of questions. Who is this family? What do they do? Who are they involved with?

They learned that Keith got his start at a Brooklyn computer store working as a janitor. All he asked for in return was a chance to study the software manuals. From there, he launched his own IT consulting business. His first employee, his older brother Paul. They joined their middle names to create J. Martin Consulting.

Interviewer/Reporter

Sounds like they're both smart.

Narrator/Storyteller

Keith was described more as like a business smart and Paul more tech smart.

Interviewer/Reporter

That could complement each other nicely in a business like that.

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Narrator/Storyteller

They renamed the company Square One and moved it to New Jersey.

Early on in the tech boom times, they had substantial clients and the company was extremely successful.

Keith owned 90%, Paul 10%. And they took over a second business. They split 50, 50 EcoStar Pest Management. Monica says the brothers were also close personally. When Keith married Jennifer in 2000, Paul was in his wedding party. And when Paul married in 1991, Keith was his best man. Both went on to have two kids and were doting uncles to each other's children.

Monica Guy

Jesse had even asked Paul, his uncle Paul to go to school with him for Special Persons Day.

Narrator/Storyteller

Now Keith and his family were gone. Investigators had their work cut out for them. But before the Colts Neck fire was even out, they got word of another blaze in a nearby town. One that would cast a whole new light on the investigation.

Interviewer/Reporter

Now you have two fires very close to each other, same day. Are you starting now to feel like, wow, this can't be a coincidence?

Narrator/Storyteller

Yes,

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Lieutenant Patrick Petruzillo

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Narrator/Storyteller

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Narrator/Storyteller

Investigators raced to collect evidence from Keith and Jennifer Canaro's house in Colts Neck. But the fire was still raging.

Interviewer/Reporter

There could be evidence going up in smoke 100%.

Firefighter Carmelo LaMarca

We immediately were discussing, like, what can we do to preserve the evidence. We did the best we could at that point, worked on securing the exterior as best we could.

Narrator/Storyteller

Right away, they noticed there were a number of things that were out of place, starting with the electric meter.

Lieutenant Patrick Petruzillo

I found the meter not in its place on the side of the wall.

Narrator/Storyteller

That's odd.

Lieutenant Patrick Petruzillo

That's one of the oddities.

Narrator/Storyteller

Another was the generator. It was turned off.

Interviewer/Reporter

You feel like the generator should have been kicked on.

Lieutenant Patrick Petruzillo

If there's no meter, there's no power going to the residence. You would hope that the generator would come on.

Narrator/Storyteller

Detectives weren't sure what it meant, but they dusted both the meter and the generator for fingerprints. Then a firefighter spotted a lone bullet.

Firefighter Carmelo LaMarca

A cartridge, which is an unspent live round, was found on the back deck

Narrator/Storyteller

and near Keith's body. Six fired shell casings.

Interviewer/Reporter

Was there a murder weapon anywhere?

Lieutenant Patrick Petruzillo

No.

Interviewer/Reporter

Was it possible that this could be a home invasion? They had a lot of money, the Canaros.

Narrator/Storyteller

At that point, anything was possible. Who is this family? What do they do? Who are they involved with?

As detectives tried to make sense of the murders, they wondered if they had something to do with another suspicious house fire that was reported hours earlier in the town of Ocean Township, 10 miles away. Officers from that local police station responded to the scene before dawn.

Interviewer/Reporter

A 911 call comes in that there's a fire in Ocean Township.

Ocean Township Police Officer

Yes. We received 911 call from a woman reporting smoke and fire at her house.

Narrator/Storyteller

Lieutenant Christopher Brady with the Ocean Township Police Department jumped out of bed and headed to the fire. Police body cameras captured the growing blaze.

Lieutenant Patrick Petruzillo

Hey, is everybody out of that house?

Defense Attorney Monica Mastalone

Yeah.

Prosecutor Chris Decker

All right, so get out of here.

Narrator/Storyteller

Officers talked to the family of four who lived in the home. They were across the street watching everything unfold. Hey, how you doing?

Lieutenant Patrick Petruzillo

You all right?

Interviewer/Reporter

Everyone okay?

Ocean Township Police Officer

No one was injured.

Interviewer/Reporter

Just shaking.

Ocean Township Police Officer

Just shaking out.

Defense Attorney Monica Mastalone

Yeah.

Interviewer/Reporter

Do they have any idea of how this fire started?

Ocean Township Police Officer

No, they had no idea how the fire started. Describing waking up to the smoke detectors and seeing smoke in the house, and they ran outside the house.

Narrator/Storyteller

Captain Brian Weisbrot and Lieutenant Nicholas Cataluna with the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office arrived to assist in the investigation.

Detective/Investigator

The first things that were concerning to me was there was multiple points of origin of the fire.

Interviewer/Reporter

What were all the points?

Detective/Investigator

The first point was in the back of the home adjacent to the gas meter. The second was in the area of one of the garage doors on the other side of the house. And then there was a third on the top of one of the Porsche vehicles that was parked in the driveway.

Narrator/Storyteller

They believed it was arson and that whoever set the fire left this behind.

Detective/Investigator

There was also a gas can found on scene with a burnt nozzle.

Interviewer/Reporter

This gas can is possibly a gold mine. You know, maybe it has DNA. Maybe it has a fingerprint.

Firefighter Carmelo LaMarca

Yeah.

Detective/Investigator

And what was interesting about the gas can is the nozzle was burnt, which was indicative that it was in close proximity to a fire source.

Narrator/Storyteller

Right next to the gas can, they noticed something else.

Ripley Burgess

We found a partially burnt black nitrile glove.

Interviewer/Reporter

Whoever lit this fire was probably wearing gloves.

Ripley Burgess

That would be a possibility. Very strong possibility.

Narrator/Storyteller

The county fire marshal examined the evidence and determined the fire was set intentionally.

Ocean Township Police Officer

He told me that there was presence of an accelerating liquid outside the residence.

Narrator/Storyteller

Investigators spotted security cameras and went back to the family to ask about them.

Mayor J.P. Bartolomeo

How you know, sir, it's your house.

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Mayor J.P. Bartolomeo

Where is all the DVD stuff for the cameras and everything in the house?

Narrator/Storyteller

It's in the garage.

Mayor J.P. Bartolomeo

Do you have them running right now?

Narrator/Storyteller

I've been having problems with stuff in the garage. An officer grabbed the box for the camera system. Anyway, maybe they'd get lucky. They also asked the family to come down to the station.

Interviewer/Reporter

Did they have any idea who might have wanted to hurt them? Had there been an argument with someone recently?

Ocean Township Police Officer

No. They had said they have had no problems with anyone.

Narrator/Storyteller

And then the detectives got an alert

Detective/Investigator

on their phones indicating that there was a fire in Cold Snacking.

Narrator/Storyteller

This was the first they were hearing about it. And they made a stunning connection.

Ocean Township Police Officer

The last name at that home was Canaro, just the same as the incident we have at Ocean Township.

Narrator/Storyteller

The owner of the Ocean Township house was Paul Canaro, older brother of Keith Canaro, the man found dead outside his burning house in Colts Neck.

Interviewer/Reporter

Wow. I mean, what are the odds? That doesn't sound like a coincidence.

Ocean Township Police Officer

It was very odd and suspicious and strange.

Narrator/Storyteller

At the police station, Paul Canero, his wife and two daughters got the awful news that Keith and his family had died.

Interviewer/Reporter

Did they just look. Absolutely, yeah.

Detective/Investigator

They appeared just as you would expect. They were devastated.

Interviewer/Reporter

You have two suspicious fires. You have four people murdered in one of the homes. Great concern for this family, is fair to say?

Ocean Township Police Officer

Yes, yes.

Interviewer/Reporter

Do you think that they're being targeted?

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All of them?

Detective/Investigator

It was a fear.

Narrator/Storyteller

Was the fire at Paul's house a failed murder attempt? If so, so it could mean someone was trying to kill the entire Canero family. But who? With no arrests or answers about who killed Keith Canaro and his family and set their house on fire, the town of Colts Neck was gripped by fear.

Asher Burgess

There's a murderer in our town. Do we stay inside? Do we lock the doors? Just any kid would, like, freak out and not know what to do.

Mayor J.P. Bartolomeo

It's very quiet.

Narrator/Storyteller

Residents look to Mayor Bartolomeo for reassurance. He couldn't yet give them.

Interviewer/Reporter

This crime needed to be solved.

Ocean Township Police Officer

It did.

Mayor J.P. Bartolomeo

Because at the moment, we didn't know if we had a monster walking the beautiful streets of Colts Neck or if it was something else.

Narrator/Storyteller

The Monmouth county prosecutor tried to quell those fears.

Monmouth County Prosecutor

We have no reason to believe that the community is in any danger at this point in time.

Narrator/Storyteller

But investigators knew that the third Kinara brother, Corey, had heard about the fires and was still worried.

Lieutenant Patrick Petruzillo

He took it upon himself to go outside of New Jersey because we didn't know what was going on.

Interviewer/Reporter

He said he was concerned for his safety.

Asher Burgess

Sure.

Narrator/Storyteller

Corey had gone to Pennsylvania with his children. He agreed to meet the detectives at a local police station there.

We interviewed him for probably a couple hours that night.

Interviewer/Reporter

This was not a situation of Corey fleeing or trying to. How was Corey handling the death of his brother and his brother's family?

Lieutenant Patrick Petruzillo

He was trying to piece it together himself as well. I'm sure he was concerned that this may be a targeted event.

Narrator/Storyteller

They asked Corey about his brother's businesses.

Corey, obviously, being a brother, had A wealth of information he knew about the dynamics of the business.

Was there a thought that a possible

Interviewer/Reporter

suspect could be something related to the business? You know, a business deal gone bad or an employee who's angry at them? Maybe, yeah.

Narrator/Storyteller

Anytime you have that common denominator of the business, I think you have to look into. Could that be part of something?

Corey couldn't think of anything, but he did reveal Keith and Paul's IT company was losing clients and about to collapse.

He had mentioned there was some emails going back and forth, things about the business, concerns that Keith had, plans that Keith had.

Those plans included selling their second business, Ecostar Pest Management. Keith emailed Paul, make the deal. Paul responded, no, we can wait a quarter and see how much more we can get. Keith wrote back, I'm not interested in waiting. Meanwhile, back at the Ocean Township police station, detectives looked through the neighborhood surveillance footage and saw something odd they believed. These clips showed the headlights of Paul's SUV reversing out of his driveway.

Detective/Investigator

What we believe to be a Porsche vehicle departing from his house and driving down the street.

Interviewer/Reporter

Around what time is that?

Detective/Investigator

Shortly after two o'clock in the morning.

Narrator/Storyteller

This was strange, too. The story Paul told police about his security cameras.

Mayor J.P. Bartolomeo

Do you have them running right now?

Narrator/Storyteller

I've been having problems with stuff in the garage. It turned out they had been working just fine. Investigators went straight to the most recent record, hours before the fire.

Interviewer/Reporter

Was there anything on the cameras that caught your attention?

Detective/Investigator

Yes. We saw Paul Canaro walk directly towards the location where the DVR was located. And then the power was cut to the DVR system.

Interviewer/Reporter

You're seeing Paul in the middle of the night and then the power goes off.

Detective/Investigator

My first response was something of surprise because never did I expect to see the homeowner walking into his garage and turning off his camera system.

Narrator/Storyteller

Why would you need to turn off

Interviewer/Reporter

your camera system in the middle of the night?

Detective/Investigator

Right.

Narrator/Storyteller

Paul was still at the station with his family. But when investigators tried to question him,

Detective/Investigator

he had requested to contact an attorney.

Interviewer/Reporter

Less than 24 hours after this fire started, Paul Canero, does he seem to be your biggest lead?

Detective/Investigator

Yeah. At that point, we had believed that Paul Canero was responsible for setting the fire of his own home.

Interviewer/Reporter

What do you do with that?

Detective/Investigator

As a result of all that, we arrested Paul Canero.

Narrator/Storyteller

The next day, the county prosecutor publicly announced Paul's arrest. But when asked about a possible connection to the murders in Coltsneck, he gave few details.

Monmouth County Prosecutor

I can't confirm or deny whether he's a suspect. The only thing I can tell you is we are exploring the possibility that these two incidents are linked.

Narrator/Storyteller

That night, the people of Coltsneck came together to mourn Keith and his family.

Mayor J.P. Bartolomeo

A grassroots group got together and said, let's all go to town hall and hold a candlelight vigil.

Narrator/Storyteller

A lot of people are asking for answers. There's no answers.

Monica Guy

And the one thing he said that I really remember was our town lost a family of really good people. And they were. They were really good people.

Asher Burgess

Everyone was like sad or crying.

Ripley Burgess

I just remember feeling really sad and broken. There.

Narrator/Storyteller

A devastating possibility was taking shape. Could Paul Canero have murdered his own brother and sister in law, his young niece and nephew?

Monica Guy

It's kind of like your intuition says to you, there's more to the story than we know.

Interviewer/Reporter

Is your gut telling you now at this point that he could be involved in the murder of his brother's family and the fire?

Detective/Investigator

Yes.

Narrator/Storyteller

But could investigators prove it? A search inside Paul's home might lead them to the answer.

Interviewer/Reporter

What's going through your mind when you see that?

Ripley Burgess

My first reaction was like disbelief.

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Prosecutor Chris Decker

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Narrator/Storyteller

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Narrator/Storyteller

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Tennessee 2012 Honey, did you invite the minions over? Well, you know how we talked about

Monmouth County Prosecutor

getting WI fi from Xfinity?

Narrator/Storyteller

Yeah. I ordered it this morning. Was online in minutes. Then they showed up. So they just came over to use the WI fi For what? Better not to know. Get online in minutes with same day wi fi from Xfinity plus lock in your price for 5 years and see Minions and monsters only in theaters. Xfinity Imagine that Restrictions apply. Not available in all areas learn more@xfinity.com Sameday Wi Fi. Paul Canero had been arrested for setting his own house on fire. Investigators worked around the clock to determine if Paul was also responsible for the deaths of his brother and his family.

Detective/Investigator

We got a lot of search warrants.

Interviewer/Reporter

Where does that lead you?

Detective/Investigator

Back to his home. His cell phone led us to all of his electronics.

Narrator/Storyteller

They collected more video, sent forensic evidence for testing, and conducted interviews with the Canaro's inner circle. A week later, investigators were convinced they had their man.

Monmouth County Prosecutor

We have charged defendant Canara with four counts of murder.

Interviewer/Reporter

This is like the story of Cain and Abel, these two brothers.

Mayor J.P. Bartolomeo

It's hard for anyone to process hardened criminal defense. Friends of mine, judges that I'm friends with, no one's ever seen anything like this.

Narrator/Storyteller

Paul pleaded not guilty, and then the public waited for the details. They would not come quickly. Pretrial hearings took years.

Monica Guy

It's been courtroom maneuvering back and forth. A change of venue request, a changing of attorneys.

Narrator/Storyteller

Finally, in January 2026, the trial got underway. Paul's family was there to support him. Jennifer Canaro's family to hold him accountable.

Prosecutor Nicole Wallace

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the defendant, Paul Canara.

Narrator/Storyteller

Nicole Wallace, open for the prosecution.

Prosecutor Nicole Wallace

What motivated him on November 20th of 2018 to do what he did and that the evidence will show came down to none other than greed and desperation.

Narrator/Storyteller

She told jurors how in the months before the murders, the failing businesses put the Canaro brothers on a collision course. Keith and I went out to dinner, friend Ben Paolucci said three days before the murders, Keith vented that he was tired of supporting Paul financially. I told Keith he needed to start worrying about himself and his family, stop supporting everybody else. Prosecutor Chris Decker suggested that selling the IT company, the more successful of the two businesses, would especially hurt Paul. He'd lose a steady income and only profit 10% from the company's sale.

Prosecutor Chris Decker

At the end of the day, it's still 90% Keith's business.

Prosecutor Nicole Wallace

Unfortunately for Paul, he wouldn't have been able to able to replace that income as easily as Keith would have. Paul made a lot of money, but he spent a lot of money too. He had a lot of debt.

Prosecutor Chris Decker

Him and his wife both had Porsches. His one daughter had a Porsche, the other daughter had a Jeep.

Narrator/Storyteller

They said he was also spending a lot on this woman, Gisele Restrepo.

Prosecutor Chris Decker

Would it be fair to say that you and Paul Canaro had a friendship?

Interviewer/Reporter

Same, yes.

Prosecutor Chris Decker

We didn't get into the relationship. We don't really want to speculate on the relationship.

Narrator/Storyteller

She said the two met at a local restaurant. Since then, Paul had helped pay for her car and her daughter's college applications.

Interviewer/Reporter

What was he spending money on then? I know that they had fancy cars, a nice house, $20,000 at Tiffany's.

Prosecutor Chris Decker

There was a lot of money spent at Tiffany's. There was a lot of money spent at Restoration Hardware.

Narrator/Storyteller

The state argued that Paul needed another source of cash, so he stole from his brother.

Prosecutor Nicole Wallace

Keith had set up what's called an irrevocable life Insurance Trust, a $3 million

Narrator/Storyteller

payout for his wife Jennifer and the children. In the event of his death, he made Paul the trustee.

Prosecutor Nicole Wallace

Part of Paul's responsibilities were to pay the premiums to the insurance company on a quarterly basis.

Narrator/Storyteller

Instead, a forensic detective testified that Paul. Paul put that money into his own account.

Interviewer/Reporter

So he was taking this money meant to protect the trust and giving it to himself 100%.

Narrator/Storyteller

But Keith found out the premiums weren't being paid. They're saying they haven't received money since April. This is home security footage from Keith's kitchen the day before the murders. In a heated call, he confronted Paul, asking for access to the online account. If you could just see a way to send me the passwords and I'll do the research myself. Later, he called him back. I need it. I need it, I need it.

Prosecutor Chris Decker

Give me the login.

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Paul.

Interviewer/Reporter

Do you believe Paul knew he was going to be exposed? That he was stealing?

Prosecutor Chris Decker

I think there's no. There's no other way to look at it. You know, Paul just ultimately decided at that point in time that night that he was just gotta. He's gotta make a move.

Narrator/Storyteller

The prosecution said Paul had another incentive to kill. If Keith and his family were dead, he stood to inherit from that trust.

Interviewer/Reporter

How much did Paul Canaro stand to gain if he was not caught for this?

Prosecutor Nicole Wallace

The trust itself, just that alone, would have been one and a half million.

Narrator/Storyteller

Investigators laid out a chilling timeline for what followed. Captain Weisbrot said it all began when Paul turned off his garage camera in the middle of the night.

Detective/Investigator

The screen immediately goes black.

Narrator/Storyteller

But he couldn't control the neighbor's cameras. A detective testified that one of them showed what looked like Paul's Porsche leaving his house at 2.07am it was heading west in the direction of Colt's Neck. He said the Porsche, with its distinctive features, was picked up again at 2.23on key. I could see the vehicle's tail lights. At 2:35, the camera in Keith's garage recorded a Burst of light from an outside motion sensor and then.

Prosecutor Nicole Wallace

Detective, did you just see a silhouette appear?

Narrator/Storyteller

Yes, ma'.

Detective/Investigator

Am.

Narrator/Storyteller

Prosecutors believe that was Paul making his way toward Keith's electrical panel and generator. Their theory, Paul ripped out the panel and turned off the generator at 3:18. Keith texted Paul this. The generator says AC failure. Going outside to see if the generator is in the right mode.

Prosecutor Chris Decker

Keith kind of, despite being still angry at Paul for discovery of his.

Narrator/Storyteller

Yeah, reaching out to him for help. He still needs him, which is really

Interviewer/Reporter

scary that Keith is essentially walking into a trap. You argued.

Prosecutor Chris Decker

Yeah, he was. I mean ultimately Paul's sitting out there lying in wait.

Narrator/Storyteller

Prosecutors argued that by 5am Paul had shot Keith five times, shot and stabbed Jennifer and killed the children. He set a slow burning fire to destroy any evidence, then drove away to do the same to his own house for the same reason.

Prosecutor Chris Decker

He just didn't ultimately succeed.

Narrator/Storyteller

A pile of clothing in Paul's basement remained almost intact after the fire. Water from fire hoses had frozen the clothes, which included a pair of men's jeans. They were stained with what looked like blood.

Interviewer/Reporter

You could see blood?

Asher Burgess

Yes.

Interviewer/Reporter

I mean, what's going through your mind when you see that? That's huge disbelief.

Narrator/Storyteller

DNA analysts testified the blood came from both of Keith's children. Paul's DNA was also found on the genes. Sophia Canaro is identified as the source

Interviewer/Reporter

of the STR DNA profile obtained.

Narrator/Storyteller

Chris Decker asked jurors to think about that and every other gruesome detail from that night.

Prosecutor Chris Decker

What kind of a brother lies in wait for his brother to come outside in the dark, place a gun to the back or side of his hooded head and pull that trigger? What kind of a man then chooses to go inside that house in the darkness to go and find his sister in Law and 11 year old Jesse Canaro and 8 year old Sophia Canaro?

Narrator/Storyteller

He rested saying the evidence in this case did not lie.

Prosecutor Chris Decker

The only just verdict in this case, the only one that follows the evidence that Mr. Canaro is guilty of all these crimes.

Narrator/Storyteller

Or was it possible the evidence just as easily pointed elsewhere? Who should they have investigated? Well, they didn't really mention him, but

Interviewer/Reporter

there's a third brother.

Narrator/Storyteller

The prosecution vilified Paul as a monster willing to kill his own family. To satisfy his grief, the defense introduced jurors to a totally different Paul Canero.

Defense Attorney Monica Mastalone

Mr. Canero, as he sits here now, as he sits here today, he's innocent. He is an innocent man. For those who knew Paul best, it made no sense. It made no sense that he could ever commit Such heinous crimes against his loved ones.

Narrator/Storyteller

Paul's attorney, Monica Mastalone.

Defense Attorney Monica Mastalone

Paul would refer to Keith as his person. That they had been through so much together personally, professionally with the businesses. And they had the type of brotherly relationship where they might bicker about something, whether it's work related, personal related, and then immediately thereafter go out to lunch and call it a day.

Narrator/Storyteller

Paul's wife and two daughters were in court to support him. As his attorney shifted the focus to investigators.

Defense Attorney Monica Mastalone

They ignored things that didn't make sense. They ignored things that did not add up. They ignored things that did not fit with their theory. The defense boils down to this. The investigation in this case was not complete. It was derived by tunnel vision that focused essentially exclusively on Paul Canero.

Narrator/Storyteller

She said investigators should have considered other suspects. For example, Paul's neighbor testified she saw two men in baseball caps before first responders arrived.

Defense Attorney Monica Mastalone

You described the two men as wearing dark colored clothing.

Asher Burgess

Yes.

Defense Attorney Monica Mastalone

We don't know who the two people were. Outside of Paul Canaro's home at 4:30 in the morning, approximately a half hour before the fire was set to his house. There's a lot of missing pieces here.

Narrator/Storyteller

The defense argued it was possible those two men killed Keith and his family and went to Paul's to plant evidence.

Interviewer/Reporter

And is there any security cameras from the neighborhood to see if you could spot these two people anywhere else?

Defense Attorney Monica Mastalone

Law enforcement only obtained surveillance video from one side of the street. And there was no investigation into the other side of the street.

Narrator/Storyteller

As for the footage police did collect, the defense said prosecutors could not prove that was Paul behind the wheel heading toward his brother's house.

Defense Attorney Monica Mastalone

There's no video of who's driving that car. There's no video of Paul Canaro specifically lighting either house on fire. There's no definitive direct video evidence or eyewitnesses. Who can tell us who did this.

Interviewer/Reporter

You were about to throw a curveball into this trial.

Defense Attorney Monica Mastalone

It was a alternative theory about an alternative potential suspect. There's a third brother. His name is Corey Canara.

Interviewer/Reporter

Corey was also to gain financially from the death of Keith and his family.

Defense Attorney Monica Mastalone

Absolutely.

Interviewer/Reporter

A lot of money.

Defense Attorney Monica Mastalone

$1.5 million. Up to possibly 3.

Interviewer/Reporter

If Paul is out of the picture, that doubles to 3 million.

Defense Attorney Monica Mastalone

That's right.

Narrator/Storyteller

Paul's lawyers didn't call Corey to the stand. But they did challenge investigators, including Detective Zurill at that point. Any efforts to additionally investigate Corey.

Lieutenant Patrick Petruzillo

No.

Narrator/Storyteller

Police defended their decision.

Firefighter Carmelo LaMarca

At no point did the evidence direct towards Corey or anyone else for that matter.

Narrator/Storyteller

Not even, they said to those two Mystery men. Police believe they were actually first responders. The defense pressed on, implying investigators also misinterpreted key evidence, like this video of Paul just before the murders.

Interviewer/Reporter

That's what the jurors are seeing when he said he was sleeping. And there he is, the state says, turning off the cameras.

Defense Attorney Monica Mastalone

Just because Paul Canero walks up to the video and the video cuts out doesn't mean he's disconnecting the video system.

Narrator/Storyteller

Specifically under cross, Captain Weisbrot said Paul did tell police at the scene that he'd been having problems with his wifi. I've been having problems with stuff in the garage. His attorney suggested he could have accidentally disconnected the camera while trying to fix the system.

Prosecutor Chris Decker

You don't know if that DVR system was plugged directly into a wall or plugged into a power strip or something like that, right?

Detective/Investigator

I don't have that information now.

Defense Attorney Monica Mastalone

It could mean that he's disconnecting any one of things that were all plugged into the same power strip or the same outlet.

Narrator/Storyteller

The defense then attacked the DNA testing. One of Paul's attorneys pointed out police never got a sample of Corey's DNA to see if it might be on those clothes. Miss, can I just watch your step, please? The lawyers brought their case full circle with two final witnesses. Paul's daughter Katie, testified her dad adored his brother Keith and considered his nephew Jesse a son.

Interviewer/Reporter

They had a great relationship. They had a lot of things in common. Jesse loved history. My dad loves history. They would do a lot of things like that.

Narrator/Storyteller

Her sister Marissa said their father's grief over the murders was genuine.

Asher Burgess

He fell to the floor, and I was sitting across from him at that point.

Monica Guy

So I got up and I was

Asher Burgess

on the floor with him, just holding him.

Narrator/Storyteller

The defense rested by repeating its opening mantra. Police got the wrong man.

Defense Attorney Monica Mastalone

You have a man who loved his family.

Narrator/Storyteller

Jurors went to deliberate. Jesse and Sophia's friends Asher and Ripley waited in the courthouse for the verdict.

Ripley Burgess

I need closure. Like, I felt like I really hated him.

Narrator/Storyteller

Five hours later. How do you find as to count one of the indictment charging the defendant Paul Canero with the murder of Keith Canaro?

Prosecutor Chris Decker

Guilty.

Narrator/Storyteller

Guilty on all four counts of murder and two counts of arson.

Monica Guy

When that verdict came in, it was such a relief. Such a relief. Someone gasped in the courtroom, and we all felt it.

Interviewer/Reporter

Did you feel like this is what Colts Neck needed?

Monica Guy

Yes.

Asher Burgess

Yes.

Monica Guy

Colts Neck needed a verdict to heal.

Narrator/Storyteller

The judge sentenced Paul Canero to four life sentences. With this parting reminder. Today, defendants greed, manipulation and selfish conduct ends his address will forever be the Department of Corrections. And as for the dream home that once symbolized the Canaro's success, what happened

Interviewer/Reporter

to Keith and Jennifer's house?

Mayor J.P. Bartolomeo

It was taken back by the banks, I believe, and ultimately knocked down.

Narrator/Storyteller

Then again, people here will tell you the Canaros were more than what they built in stone. They'll be remembered for what they put into this town, enthusiastic kindness and generosity.

Monica Guy

There's no way this family will ever be forgotten. Their loss is felt, but their legacy lives on.

Lester Holt

That's all for this edition of dateline. And don't forget to check out our Talking DATELINE podcast, in which we'll go behind the scenes of tonight's episode, available Wednesday in the DATELINE feed. Wherever you get your podcasts, we'll see you again next Friday at 10, 9 Central. I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, good night.

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