Just before he was brutally killed last month, Keith Caneiro was exploring the possibility of leaving New Jersey.

He’d sent his resume to a classmate from Columbia University and explained how he was willing to relocate to California for the right job.

Caneiro, 50, seemed ready to walk away from the once-thriving technology business he built decades ago, but which had been struggling financially as of late.

Keith Caneiro started the business with his older brother, Paul Caneiro, and was ready to walk away from him, too.

Something had changed.

A year ago, the classmate explained, Keith Caneiro wasn’t willing to remove his family from the cushy life they appeared to be living in wealthy Colts Neck, the affluent Monmouth County enclave not far from the Jersey Shore.

Their estate, a hulking structure neighbors referred to as “the dumpster” because of its roof, became a grisly murder scene last month after authorities say Keith’s brother and business partner, Paul, shot him to death before slaughtering Keith’s entire family inside.

Investigators are now looking to the finances of the brothers’ technology start-up, Square One, as the source of a potential motive that allegedly put Paul Caneiro over the edge, and spurred the change in his brother.

Paul Caneiro’s facing four counts of first-degree murder in what Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni called “the most brutal” crime he’s seen in his career.

His attorneys maintain he is innocent, and that he loves his family dearly.

“The process today can begin for a search for the truth and who committed these horrendous acts,” defense attorneys Robert A. Honecker Jr. and Mitchell J. Ansell said in a Nov. 29 statement.

‘It’s a corpse’

Keith Caneiro, his wife, Jennifer, 45, and the couple’s two young children, Sophia and Jesse, were found dead around 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 20.

A neighbor, Boris Volshteyn, first reported the fire to 911. As he got closer to the house, he became frantic in the 911 call as he discovered his friend’s dead body lying on the front lawn.

“Oh, my God, there’s blood here,” Volshteyn told the dispatcher. “It’s a corpse. Somebody is dead here.”

It was Keith Caneiro.

As authorities continued to battle the blaze, they would soon find the badly burned bodies of the rest of the family inside the $1.6 million home on Willow Brook Road. They were all victims of a brutal homicide, Gramiccioni said.

The children had stab wounds.

Gramiccioni alleged the Caneiro family was killed in the early morning hours on Nov. 20 at the hands of Paul Caneiro. After setting fire to the basement, authorities said, Paul went back to his own home 12 miles away in Ocean Township, doused it with gasoline and lit fire to the house with his wife and two daughters inside.

“We allege it was a ruse,” Gramiccioni said: An attempt to thwart authorities and make it appear as if the Caneiro brothers and their families were targeted.

An aerial view of authorities responding to a massive fire in Colts Neck on Nov. 20. (Andrew Mills | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

The following day, on Nov. 21, Paul Caneiro was charged with aggravated arson for trying to burn down his own home. Eight days later, detectives filed additional murder charges, another count of aggravated arson and weapons offenses.

He’s now facing anywhere from 30 years to life in prison on each murder count.

Gramiccioni said if it were an option in New Jersey, he’d seek the death penalty for Paul Caneiro.

Paul Caneiro will now sit in the Monmouth County jail until his trial, which Gramiccioni said could start as late as mid-2020.

‘The Perfect Brothers’

Keith and Paul Caneiro came from humble beginnings. Sons of parents who immigrated to New York from Spain, the two were raised in Brooklyn and also lived on Staten Island.

As a teenager, Keith worked jobs at McDonald’s and Burger King to support himself, he told the Asbury Park Press in 2001.

At the same time, Keith developed an interest in computers, organizing and cleaning shelves at a computer store for free. The job gave him access to computer software manuals that he would devour at home.

Keith would go on to work for companies that installed computer networks for major financial companies like Citibank.

In 1989, he started his own computer company, Jay-Martin Consulting, with his brother, Paul. The name derived from their middle names.

The brothers rode the success of the late-90s tech boom alongside one another. They were the “perfect brothers,” said a longtime family friend, Demetris Potamianos.

When Paul married his wife, Susan, in 1991 in Shrewsbury, Keith stood by his side as best man, according to a wedding announcement in the Staten Island Advance.

By 1993, the tech business, now called Square One, was booming, pulling in $5.5 million in revenue, the Asbury Park Press profile described.

Square One boasted on its website in 2017 a strong client list of more than 30 companies, including Nike, Reuters and Prudential.

“Clients. Customers. No matter what you want to call them, they are the most important thing in our business,” said the Square One website, which has since been taken down.

As the brothers thrived, the business was relocated from Brooklyn to Woodbridge and, eventually, Asbury Park. The brothers, too, moved with their families down to well-off neighborhoods in Monmouth County.

The Caneiros appeared to be living very comfortable lives, neighbors said.

Paul lived in a modest home on Tilton Drive in the Wayside section of Ocean Township he purchased in 1997, but also drove a Porsche and flaunted his many vacations, neighbors said.

Paul Caneiro's home in Ocean Township. (Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com.)Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media

Paul’s Tilton Drive home, while nice, paled in comparison to his brother’s house on a swath of land in Colts Neck that was purchased in 1999. Keith and Jennifer Caneiro paid off the $1.8 million mortgage two years ago, records show.

The brothers also took over a pest control company, EcoStar Pest Management, in 2011. The company operated out of the same Asbury Park office as Square One. An employee of the pest-control business said the businesses operated separately, and though the Caneiro brothers were owners, they weren’t heavily involved in the day-to-day dealings.

Keith could never sit still, friends say, and he was always looking for the next thing.

The 42-year-old Freshman

At the age of 42, Keith enrolled at Columbia University where he majored in ancient history. A professor of his, Justin Dombrowski, said it was always something he wanted to do.

Dombrowski admired Keith, he said, and described him as smart and hardworking.

“He wasn’t just about finishing a degree,” Dombrowski, 38, said. “He was the type of guy you wanted in the classroom. He wanted to contribute and add to the environment.”

The professor recalled Keith talking about how his businesses were profitable but that he wanted to do something different after Columbia.

Keith returned to Columbia in 2016 to earn a master’s degree. His thesis, according to his LinkedIn page, was, “harnessing technology to solve world hunger by matching excess food with hungry people.”

“He was one of the brightest guys,” said Ameet Chaudhury, a classmate in the master’s program. “The professors respected him. I was lucky to have known him.”

Chaudhury said about 30 former classmates from the graduate program flew in from all over the world for Keith’s funeral. “It shows how good of a guy he was,” Chaudhury said.

The Caneiros in Colts Neck

In Colts Neck, about 50 miles south of New York City, Keith and Jennifer were a common sight at youth sporting events and school activities, Mayor J.P. Bartolomeo said. Jennifer Caneiro was heavily involved in the Conover Road Elementary School parent-teacher organization.

Jesse, 11, played baseball while Sophia, 8, was a cheerleader.

“They were good people that fit into our community perfectly,” Bartolomeo said.

A neighbor and local farm owner, Frances Purdy, said she recalls joking with Keith years ago about the peach trees he grew in his front yard and the Japanese beetle traps he set.

“I called him and said, ‘It’s better to put the traps in your neighbors’ yards, because you’ll attract all the bugs to your yard,’” she quipped.

Keith and his family spent summers vacationing to a small home they owned in Aegina, a Greek island. The home was inherited from Jennifer Caneiro’s grandparents, a family friend said. She relished the time spent with relatives in Greece, her obituary states.

The two also shared a common passion for night life.

“He was an unconventional family man,” Dombrowski, the professor, said. “I didn’t meet too many people who said, ‘and I love to go clubbing.’ It was funny but adorable at the same time.”

Paul’s Crash

Paul, neighbors said, was also sociable in his Ocean Township neighborhood, attending housewarming parties with his wife and chatting about his gun collection. One neighbor said he was a member of the Old Bridge Rifle and Pistol Club.

After suffering a bad car crash in Asbury Park in 2012, Paul was left with “severe personal injuries,” according to a 2014 lawsuit he filed against the other driver in the crash. The lawsuit was settled for $120,000.

Potamianos, the family friend, said Paul underwent multiple surgeries, which took an emotional toll on him, especially since he was at the top of his game.

The crash caused Paul to walk with a limp, but he still managed to take care of his house, shoveling his own driveway when it snowed, neighbors said.

Lately, Paul had been feeling much better, Potamianos said.

“Paul was doing better in regard to his health,” Potamianos said, noting that he had last spoken to him in early November. “If this happened two or three years ago, I would have understood it. But right now, Paul was doing better, everything was going in the right direction, so it’s very unexplainable to me why this happened.”

The Case

Square One, meanwhile, had fallen on tough times, according to a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation.

Gramiccioni said at a recent press conference he has evidence that shows the motive was “financial in nature,” stemming from the brothers' joint business ventures. He said detectives continue to probe the business and financial dealings of Paul Caneiro.

Ansell, Paul Caneiro’s attorney, said last week prosecutors have not yet presented him with any evidence showing financial difficulties.

The Caneiro killings have reverberated around the world, making headlines on the evening news and in newspapers overseas.

Colts Neck, where working farms roll past residential estates, and perhaps most well-known for the celebrities in town -- like Bruce Springsteen -- is now struggling to return to normalcy, Bartolomeo, the mayor, said.

“It’s not very easy to just move on,” he said. “The town is reeling from the tragedy. Our children are feeling it. Our schools are feeling it. Our teachers are feeling it. Our parents are feeling it.”

On Thanksgiving Eve, the community gathered at a vigil on the front steps of town hall. The Caneiro family was laid to rest last Sunday in Holmdel, where lines of mourners and cars stopped traffic.

A statement from the family said, in part, they are “grateful for the outpouring of love and support.”

“The passing of these four beautiful people was tragic, sudden and incomprehensible and like you we are heartbroken,” the statement said. “May we all take comfort in the wonderful memories and incredible moments of joy they gave to all of us.”

- Reporting contributed by Sophie Nieto-Muñoz and Joe Atmonavage. Research by Vinessa Erminio.

Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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