The 911 call came at 3:33 a.m.

A man reported hearing something unusual for that time of night: what sounded like gunshots in the area of his home on Rivers Edge Drive in Colts Neck. He told a dispatcher he was sitting in bed when he heard five shots ring out in rapid succession, "bop-bop-bop-bop-bop," followed by a two-second pause before one more "boom."

"It’s just clearly a gunshot," he told the dispatcher. Later he added, "It just didn't seem right."

A township patrol officer was summoned to the area to investigate, but the report was deemed unfounded, according to police documents.

THE LATEST: Paul Caneiro pleads not guilty to all charges

A few miles away on Willow Brook Road, a woman woke in the middle of the night, unable to fall back to sleep. While she was up, she heard "four to five loud 'cracks,'" followed by a single gunshot, according to police. She looked at the time on her cable box. It was 3:10 a.m on Nov. 20, 2018.

Authorities think they know what these neighbors were hearing — a massacre in progress.

That's the time investigators believe Paul Caneiro, enraged by a dispute over money, drove to 15 Willow Brook Road in Colts Neck and murdered his brother Keith, his sister-in-law Jennifer and their two young children in their home.

The rest of the world wouldn't know the horror that enfolded at the relatively secluded estate for another nine hours, when the first reports of a house fire emerged.

Paul Caneiro, 52, of Ocean Township, is facing four counts of first-degree murder and a host of other offenses in connection with the killings. He appeared in court Monday for arraignment following his indictment and pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.

Caneiro faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted. Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni has described the killings, which occurred two days before Thanksgiving, as among the most brutal in Monmouth County's history.

Caneiro's defense attorneys have repeatedly asserted that their client maintains his innocence. They say he loved his brother and his brother's family and would never cause them harm.

EARLIER:Bullets, money trouble and a bloody glove: Affidavit lays out Colts Neck quadruple homicide

Brothers in business

Paul and Keith Caneiro, born about 18 months apart, grew up together in Staten Island in a family of three boys. Later in life, they went into business together, starting a technology consulting company called Jay-Martin Consulting, a name derived of each of their middle names, in the late 1980s, Keith Caneiro told the Asbury Park Press in a 2001 profile.

The business took off in the 1990s, the earliest days of the internet, in large part due to lucrative contracts with Citibank, according to the 2001 interview with Keith Caneiro, the company's chief executive officer.

Keith and Paul both married their wives and left the city behind for the suburbs of Monmouth County. Keith Caneiro married Jennifer Karidis in 2000 and they had two children, Sophia and Jesse. Jennifer was described as cheerful and fun-loving, someone who deeply valued relationships with family and friends and savored trips to her family's home on the Greek island of Aegina.

Paul Caneiro settled in Ocean Township with his wife and their two daughters.

Keith Caneiro grew up obsessed with technology. He once worked in a computer store for free, while working other jobs, just to be around the newest devices.

Friends said he was somewhat restless professionally, always wanting to be involved in several different ventures simultaneously. In addition to the technology business, Keith and Paul ran a pest control business together.

"Very often I say that if you leave Paul and Keith in a desert place that place will be booming in business within six months," family friend Demetris Potanianos told the Press in December.

Paul Caneiro's lawyers said Paul maintained a close relationship with Keith and his family. Friends of Paul's daughters said the two families shared major milestones and holidays together.

Prosecutors have not fully laid out how they believe the relationship deteriorated to the point of murder, but an affidavit of probable cause laying out the evidence supporting Paul Caneiro's arrest offers some tantalizing clues.

Paul Caneiro was involved in a severe car accident in Asbury Park in November 2012, which required an arduous recovery. He was still deemed disabled at the time of the murder and his wife was collecting his share as a 10-percent owner of the technology business, now called Square One, according to the affidavit.

But Keith Caneiro was growing frustrated with his brother's spending from business accounts, according to the affidavit. Neighbors recalled that Paul often boasted about money. When investigators first went to Paul Caneiro's home, they found three Porsches parked out front.

Keith was also looking to move on from Square One. He recently completed bachelor's and master's degree programs at Columbia University, telling friends he might want to leave the technology business.

And then on Nov. 19, Keith Caneiro sent out an email to business associates. He was done.

EARLIER:Paul Caneiro indicted on murder, theft charges

A family murdered

About 18 hours before Keith Caneiro, 50, was found dead on the front lawn of his estate, he forwarded an email to his brother Corey Caneiro.

The email, which had also been sent to two other business associates, declared that there was money missing from the business and that he would stop paying Paul Caneiro's wife until he figured out what was going on. He had also told his business manager to halt payments to Paul's wife "because of arguments with Paul over money," according to police.

It's not clear whether prosecutors believe Paul Caneiro was stealing from the business, but a grand jury indictment released last month did charge Paul Caneiro with theft of movable property, alleging he stole roughly $75,000 from Keith and/or Keith's family between Jan. 1, 2017 and Nov. 19, 2018. Investigators have been probing the financial dealings of the business since shortly after the killings.

It's also not clear if Paul Caneiro knew about his brother's email. But authorities allege that only hours later, about 1:29 a.m., Paul Caneiro walked into the garage of his home and approached his DVR surveillance camera system. A minute later, the footage stops, according to the affidavit.

Then at 2:07 a.m., one neighbor's surveillance camera captures headlights exiting Paul Caneiro's Tilton Drive home. Another camera in the neighborhood records a white-colored SUV, believed to be a Porsche, heading west toward Green Grove Road, according to authorities.

An hour later, those two residents in Colts Neck awoke to hear what sounds like gunshots in the dead of night. The Caneiro's $1.5 million-mansion is located on nine acres of property and surrounded by other large upscale estates.

What exactly happened at the home that night remains unclear; but the brutality of the killings rattled law enforcement.

"This is the one of the most heinous cases that I think they have ever investigated, that we have ever seen," Gramiccioni said the day following the murder, referring to county law enforcement.

Keith Caneiro was found first on the front lawn, shot once in the lower back and four times in the head. Authorities believe he was the first of his family to be killed.

After he killed his brother, authorities allege, Paul proceeded into the house and murdered Jennifer, 45, and the children. Jennifer's body was found on the stairs leading from the first floor to the basement of the home. She had multiple stab wounds to the torso and a gunshot wound to the head.

Jesse, 11, was discovered laying on the kitchen floor. His 8-year-old sister Sophia was on the landing of the stairs between the first and second floor of the home. Both had been stabbed multiple times to death, authorities said.

Obituaries would later describe them as precocious children. Jesse enjoyed history and discussing current events. He also inherited his father's interest in technology and learning about the inner workings of devices we take for granted. Sophia loved the arts, ice skating, gymnastics and taking "ninja classes."

Before Paul Caneiro left the mansion on Willow Brook Road, authorities allege, he ignited a fire in the basement, a blaze that would slowly smolder in the house until it would explode into an inferno several hours later.

Neighbors' surveillance cameras would again capture that same vehicle, believed to be a Porsche, returning to Paul Caneiro's home at about 4:08 a.m.

The Asbury Park Press and APP.com have provided comprehensive coverage of the Colts Neck murder case since day one. Subscribe now for unlimited access to our coverage as the case progresses.

COLTS NECK MURDERS:What happened the day the Caneiros were killed? A timeline.

A second fire

Less than an hour later at 5:01 a.m., authorities were called to the Caneiro home, but it was Paul's residence, not Keith's that first drew a police response.

Authorities allege that after Paul Caneiro returned from Colts Neck, he set his own house ablaze — with his wife and two adult daughters asleep inside. The fire served two purposes: to destroy evidence from the Colts Neck killings and to confuse investigators into thinking someone was targeting the wider Caneiro family, Gramiccioni, the county prosecutor, has said.

Paul Caneiro's wife escaped the fire when an alarm began ringing throughout the home. She and her daughters made it out of the house safely and waited outside with Paul in one of the Porsches while fire crews extinguished the blaze.

Arson investigators determined that Paul Caneiro used gasoline to set the fire in two different parts of the house. Evidence recovered at the house included burn marks on a white loaner Porsche, a red gas can and charred rubber glove found near the car and scorch marks on the garage door. Investigators also found three gas cans in the shed, with a gap in between indicating that fourth can had been removed, according to police.

Prosecutors used that evidence to charge Paul Caneiro with aggravated arson early Nov. 21.

COLTS NECK MURDERS:Caneiro family remembered as 'beautiful people' at funeral, memorial

'My God there's blood here. … It's a corpse'

Meanwhile, the sun rose Nov. 20 without anyone discovering the gruesome scene at 15 Willow Brook Road. Neighbors noticed that the kids weren't outside waiting for the bus that morning, which they found unusual.

But no one noticed anything was wrong until after noon, when a landscaper working in the area smelled smoke emanating from the Caneiro estate.

He alerted his boss, Boris Volshteyn, a friend of the family, who went over to check on the property, Boris' wife later told a reporter. He discovered Keith Caneiro shot to death on the front lawn. At 12:38 p.m., he called 911.

"My God, there's blood here," Volshteyn told a dispatcher. "It's a corpse."

As firefighters arrived, the blaze expanded to consume much of the Caneiros' modern-looking mansion. Crews eventually found the three bodies of the rest of Keith Caneiro's family in the ruin of the house.

The story — a massive mansion fire that concealed the brutal murder of an entire family of four — quickly drew national headlines. And with Paul Caneiro sitting in jail on an aggravated arson charge, speculation mounted over what role he may have played in Colts Neck.

Investigators also centered on Paul Caneiro. In the days that followed, police combed through his vehicles and his home.

In a 2016 Porsche Cayenne, the same vehicle that his family packed into to escape the fire, authorities found a backpack with a laptop, Paul Caneiro's passport, a 9mm barrel of a Sig Sauer firearm, a night vision gun accessory and firearm parts designed to suppress the sound "and/or muzzle the flash" of gunfire, according to the affidavit.

In the basement of Paul Caneiro's home, a search turned up "a vast amount of firearms and a variety of ammunition," including ammunition that matched shell casings found near Keith Caneiro's body in Colts Neck. A State Police K9 team also found a plastic container. Inside was clothing, including jeans and a latex glove that were stained with blood, according to the document.

State Police DNA experts later concluded that the blood — found on three different places on the jeans and on the latex glove — belonged to Sophia Caneiro, according to the affidavit.

Inside the fold of the clothing recovered from Paul Caneiro's basement, investigators found an unspent bullet casing, that appeared to match the casings found near Keith Caneiro's body. Those shell casings were identified as Fiocchi 9mm, bearing the headstamp "GFL 10 9X19." Investigators also found Fiocchi 9mm ammunition in the basement of Paul Caneiro's home with the same headstamp, letters and numbers carved into ammunition identifying its manufacturer and caliber, according to the affidavit.

Armed with that information, Gramiccioni stood before cameras on Nov. 29 and announced that Paul Caneiro had been charged with four counts of first-degree murder. His defense attorneys declared he'd be "completely vindicated" once the case was resolved.

Two days later, Paul Caneiro appeared in a Monmouth County courtroom for the first time, wearing a green jumpsuit with his hands shackled at the waist, as a judge read the charges against him.

COLTS NECK MURDERS:Colts Neck murders: Killings put focus on 'family annihilators'

The defense

Paul Caneiro's defense attorneys Robert A. Honecker Jr., and Mitchell J. Ansell, of the Ocean Township firm Ansell, Grimm and Aaron, repeatedly stated that their client maintained his innocence.

The defense team has not commented directly on the evidence and timeline laid out by the Prosecutor's Office. In statement Feb. 25 — the day the affidavit was unsealed — Honecker and Ansell said they would review the state's evidence and to "identify any issues that may relate to the case."

"Paul's family means more to him than anything else in this world," the attorneys said in the statement the day Paul Caneiro was charged with murder. "There is absolutely no reason in the world for Paul Caneiro to have committed the crimes he is alleged to have committed."

On Monday, Honecker and Ansell said in a statement that "after great debate and discussion" within the firm, the attorneys decided to stop representing Paul Caneiro due to conflicts of interest.

The attorneys said they discovered at least two separate conflicts after reviewing evidence in the case and both the trial judge and Prosecutor's Office agreed that those conflicts make it "impossible" to continue representing Paul Caneiro.

The attorneys said they could not disclose the conflicts of interest without jeopardizing Caneiro's right to a fair trial. At Monday's arraignment, Caneiro was represented by Deputy Assistant Public Defender Michael Wicke.

"We take this action regrettably and firmly believe that Paul J. Caneiro is entitled to his day in court," Honecker and Ansell said in the statement.

Andrew Goudsward: @AGoudsward; 732-897-4555; agoudsward@gannettnj.com