MONROE — A day after her Monroe Township home was partially destroyed by explosives, Jeanne Bezerra said the family's problems began nearly two years ago after her son quarrelled with three friends over an online game.

Those former friends are now accused of bombing the Bezerra family’s Laquinta Court home early Saturday, destroying the attic and two bedrooms.

"We started seeing escalating incidents," she said of the weeks after the squabble involving her now 22-year-old son. "The last few months have been ratcheting up."

Matthew Debski, 20, and brothers Michael Cavallo, 22, and Jonathan Cavallo, 18, were arrested Saturday and face 21 charges — including arson, aggravated assault and trespassing. They are being held at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick on $150,000 bail each.

The families of Debski and the Cavallos could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Bezerra said she believes the dispute over the game is why her family has been harassed. She declined to be more specific about the dispute because of the ongoing investigation.

Of the harassment, she said at first it seemed largely innocuous.

In recent months, however, she said it became more threatening, citing fireworks ignited outside her bedroom window and car windows broken.

She said she called police a couple of times, but could provide little evidence.

Monroe police could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Bezerra, 54, has lived in her home for 10 years with her husband, Boanerges, and their three children, she said.

The Bezerras house was shelled before dawn Saturday by what she called homemade pipe bombs. The explosives, she said, had been launched from a granite block set up on her property.

Bezerra said eight explosives were launched, and five struck the house. Most exploded in the attic, but one smashed through her 14-year-old daughter’s bedroom window, landing where her daughter’s bed had been two days earlier.

No one was injured.

Jim O’Neill, spokesman for the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, said Sunday that he is aware of only three explosive devices. Two of them hit the house, he said, while a third landed as rescue crews were arriving.

O’Neill declined to confirm the explosives were pipe bombs. "We’re not allowed to discuss evidence, according to court rules," he said.

What’s undisputed, however, is the toll it’s taken on the Bezerra family, which is left to wonder how this situation could have gotten so out of control.

"We all knew them," said Jeanne Bezerra. "They were friends of ours."

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