Picture Emerges Of One Caneiro Brother Thriving, Another In Pain

COLTS NECK, NJ — In the days following the Colts Neck murders, there has been much public speculation about who the Caneiro brothers are, and what could have possibly led Paul Caneiro to allegedly murder his one-year younger brother, Keith, as well as savagely butcher Keith's wife and children, as prosecutors contend.

The picture that emerges is of two brothers who grew up extremely close in Brooklyn and Staten Island, just a year apart and who always had each other's back. But in their adult years, Keith appears as a hard-working, self-made entrepreneur, on a constant quest to improve himself and — in doing so —possibly growing apart from his big brother.

The three Caneiro boys were raised in working-class Brooklyn and Staten Island, the New York Times reports; their father, Cesar Caneiro is originally from Spain. Paul, 51, was the oldest, with Keith, 50, trailing one year behind him; baby brother Corey Caneiro is 44.

As the boys grew, it was Keith who showed a real aptitude for computers. As a teen in the early '80s he took a job as a janitor cleaning the shelves of a small computer store, the Asbury Park Press reports. The job was entirely unpaid. Computers were brand new and relatively unheard of at the time, and Keith just wanted to be near them. Keith's only payment were the computer software manuals that he asked to take home at night and read. He took side jobs working at McDonald's and Burger King.

Related: Colts Neck Murder Case Won't Go To Trial Until 2020

In fact, Keith's bring-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps story was written about in this 2001 Asbury Park Press business profile, which describes the beginnings of Square One, the tech business he launched. Curiously, in that article he goes by the name Keith Martin.

After six months, the owner of the computer store promoted Keith from unpaid janitor to selling the computer equipment. It was in computer sales that he met a woman who worked at CitiBank, who mentioned the major bank was having computer problems. Keith told her he thought he could solve it and, "In about 30 seconds, I fixed the problem," Keith recalled to the Asbury Park Press.

He started working as a freelance IT consultant for CitiBank two days a week, and then his services were needed daily, the APP reported. From there he launched Jay-Martin Consulting. The Jay is Keith's middle name. The first person he hired to help run the business? His older brother, Paul. Paul's title was director of technical services.

The company thrived; Jay-Martin became extraordinarily busy. It was the mid '90s and the fields of computers and technology were booming. Caneiro landed a major contract to install the computer networks at all of CitiBank's 235 branches nationwide.

"If I worked 10 days a week, I would never be able to finish all the projects that I had," Keith told the Asbury Park Press at the time. "I was in the right place at the right time."

From there, Jay-Martin secured contracts with J.P. Morgan and Chase Manhattan. The firm's name evolved to Square One; the company was based in Brooklyn, then Woodbridge and then Holmdel as the brothers migrated farther south. In fact, if you've ever used the computer stations at Ellis Island to research family history, it was Square One that was hired to create that technology.

In the early 2000s, the technology company was making enough money that the brothers were able to buy a pest control business, as well. Paul took over operations of EcoStar Pest Management, while Keith remained in charge of Square One. Both businesses operated out of the same office space on Cookman Avenue in Absury Park. Still, it was only Keith who was listed as the sole owner of both businesses, NJ.com reported.

All three Caneiro brothers left gritty New York for wealthy, rural Monmouth County: Paul to a suburban cul-de-sac in Ocean Township and Keith to a $1.5-million palatial modern home sitting on ten acres in Colts Neck horse country. The third Caneiro brother lives in Fair Haven with his wife.

“It was Paul and Keith all the time,” family friend, Demetris Potamianos, a hairstylist in Manhattan, told the New York Times. “It was the perfect helpful brother relationship.”

The brothers remained close: When Paul got married in 1991, Keith was his best man. When Keith married in 2000, Paul was in his wedding party.

But Paul began struggling: About five years ago, he was seriously injured in a car accident, Potamianos told the Times. He's undergone several surgeries for the constant pain. In fact, when he walked with a slight limp into Monmouth County Superior Court this past Friday, it was due to chronic back pain, his lawyers told the Times.

"He was never, never the same person after he got in that accident," Potamianos told FOX News. "It was bad. It was bad for a very long time."

“I remember the family would complain sometimes about his behavior,” Potamianos told the Times. “He was frustrated, but not to the point to hurt his family members.”

Potaminous also told both media outlets Paul had moved out of the Ocean Twp. home he shared with his wife earlier this year, but had recently moved back in.

Paul was a licensed gun owner and liked to visit a local shooting range, Potamianos said. He also said that in 2015, he recalled Paul showing Keith and him his personal collection of nearly a dozen firearms he kept locked in his garage. There were several handguns and a few assault weapons in that collection.

Then Keith began talking recently about ending their business partnership.

Keith had recently gone back to school, determined to get his college degree as a married father of two and a businessman. He didn't stop at just undergrad: He earned an undergraduate degree in ancient civilizations from Columbia University in 2014, and then a master's degree in IT management earlier this year, according to his LinkedIn profile. A classmate of his in the Columbia master's program, Ameet Chaudhury, told the Times that Keith often dreamed of becoming a chief technology officer for a big company.

“He would just mention it to everyone,” Chaudhury said. “He wanted to try something different.”

In fact, Keith had even gone on interviews in the last few weeks, an anonymous family friend told the Times. Brian Bott, the owner of Aspire Fitness, the Colts Neck gym where Keith loved to work out, told FOX something similar: Keith was a fun-loving fixture at the gym, and he was excited about some job interviews he had lined up since getting his master's degree.

"Keith was an 'idea' guy and I think it's why him and I got along so well," gym owner Bott wrote in a Facebook post to memorialize his friend. "We'd talk about business, music, movies, or anything really but I sincerely enjoyed my conversations with him and the way they would challenge me intellectually."

Chaudhury said Keith never mentioned what would happen to the businesses the brothers ran together, if he left.

No signs of something amiss

Although the two brothers may have been diverging, colleagues and acquaintances said there was no sign of anything amiss on Monday, Nov. 19, the day before Paul allegedly shot his brother and shot and stabbed his wife and two children. An employee of their's at the pest control company told the New York Post Paul came into their office as he usually did that Monday, at about 10 a.m. and left around 3 p.m., spending much of the day with his nose buried in his iPad.

“Paul was Paul,” said employee David Natelson. “Nothing I saw on Monday was any different than anything I had seen any other day."

Keith rarely even came into the EcoStar offices anymore, the employee added, saying that he hadn't seen him in over a year. Prior to that, both brothers ran the business together, in a more hands-on manner.

Natelson also told the New York Post that the pest control business "was no gold mine," but also did not appear to be struggling. EcoStar had nine employees total, including himself.

“I wasn’t aware of any pressures,” he said, adding that he was not privy to the inner financial workings. “It was no gold mine. We were growing our revenue and investing in additional expenses ... It was a growing business that like any growing business has cash flow pressures, but nothing serious … no business-threatening pressures.”

Natelson declined comment when reached by Patch following the New York Post report.

He said the youngest Caneiro brother Corey is taking over the day-to-day operations.

“Our instructions are to operate as usual,” he said.

Prosecutors have only said that Paul's motive to allegedly murder his brother and family was financial, but have refused to elaborate beyond that. On Monday, a judge sealed the affidavit of probable cause, a spokesman for the Monmouth County prosecutor said. It will remain sealed until mid February, after the grand jury has heard the evidence and decided whether or not to indict Paul for the four murders and two arsons.

Paul's lawyers say he is innocent and has no financial motive, pointing out he drives a Porsche and his Ocean Township home is valued at $500,000.

Brian Bott of Aspire Fitness posted this video of Keith doing push-ups with his daughter, Sophia, on his back at the gym, saying in an incredibly touching post this is how he'd like to remember Keith Caneiro and his family:

See Paul's first appearance this past Friday, Nov. 30:

Photos: Photos of Keith and Jennifer Caneiro, at left, at his Columbia University graduation and Paul Caneiro, at his first court appearance (from CBS News).

Various other media reports on the Caneiro brothers: Before Colts Neck Murders, Two Brothers and Troubled Business Ties (New York Times)

Free Work Pays Off In The Long Run (Asbury Park Press)

As 1 brother thrived, the other struggled before slayings (FOX News)