The daughter of Paul Caneiro – the New Jersey man headed to trial Monday for the 2018 slaughter of his brother, sister-and-law, niece and nephew – is still haunted by their devastating deaths, her heart-wrenching social media posts reveal.
“Everyday I think of you and wish that I could just hug you one last time. everyday I think of how unfair it is that you were taken away from us so soon . . . everyday is a struggle without the four of you, it will never get easier,” Katelyn Caneiro wrote in a Facebook tribute posted Nov. 20, 2021 – three years after the grisly murders of her uncle, Keith Caneiro; his wife, Jennifer, and the couple’s two kids, 8-year-old Sophia and 11-year-old Jesse.
The post, which features a black-and-white photo of Katelyn, now 33, smiling alongside her slain relatives, captures the deep closeness the two families once shared.
“Uncle Keith . . . everyday I think of your laugh and it makes me smile. I miss your corny jokes that you would repeat and still find funny wayyyyy after it stopped being funny . . . I miss you calling me to come over because you were cooking, and the only thing you knew how to cook was steak . . . what I miss most is being able to call you, because you always made my silly problems seem like it was nothing,” wrote Katelyn, who goes by Kateith Elizabeth on Facebook.
Addressing her late aunt, she added: “Aunt Jen. growing up I wanted to be you,” before recalling childhood candy runs and nights out together in Greece.
For Jesse, she wrote, “My Jesse boy . . . you are my person . . . when I went away to college you facetimed me every week (at three years old) . . . the thing I miss most is how you always wanted me around.”
Calling little Sophia “my Pipsqueak. My mini me,” Katelyn recalled the girl’s adventurous spirit, her “little pretend heels,” sleepovers with stuffed animals and loud snores. “I wish I could snuggly you one last time,” she wrote.
In a 2020 post, Katelyn said she still had visions of her loved ones. “I feel so lost with out you. every time I feel like giving up you send a sign or come to me in my dreams. knowing you are all still with me is what keeps me going,” she wrote.
Paul Caneiro, 58, is accused of gunning down his 50-year-old business-partner brother, shooting and stabbing Jennifer, 50, and then turning the knife on the children, before setting their Colts Neck mansion ablaze. He then torched his own Ocean Township home to stage a false alibi that he and his brothers were being targeted by a crazed killer, prosecutors allege.
Jury selection in his quadruple murder trial is set to begin on Sept. 8, after a judge denied a defense motion to move it out of Monmouth County.
Prosecutors have cited money and greed as his motive.
Keith allegedly discovered Paul had stolen up to $75,000 from two Asbury Park-based businesses they co-owned – EcoStar Pest Management and an IT venture called Squareone – and was planning on cutting off his older brother’s paychecks, according to authorities.
A former attorney for Caneiro – who has pleaded not guilty – said, “He would never hurt any member of his family.”
Katelyn, a graduate of Seton Hall University who now works as a nurse, did not return messages seeking comment.
Her mother, Susan Caneiro – who has since relocated to Toms River, NJ – said, “No comment. I will not comment on anything,” when The Post visited.
Paul and Susan have another daughter, Marissa, 30, who did not return messages seeking comment.
Paul and Keith’s younger brother, Corey Caneiro, 51, who lives in Fair Haven, NJ, declined to comment, as did the parents of the three brothers, Sherry and Cesar Caneiro, who live in Red Bank, NJ.
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