Horrific autopsy photos revealed in slaughter of Colts Neck children and parents

⚖️ Gruesome testimony in Freehold: Jurors were shown autopsy photos detailing brutal injuries to the Caneiro family, including the two young children.

⚖️ Medical examiners testify: Experts described stab wounds, gunshots, smoke inhalation and defensive injuries suffered by the victims.

⚖️ Prosecutors outline motive: The state says financial desperation and a $3 million life insurance policy drove the killings.

FREEHOLD BOROUGH — On Wednesday, jurors in the Paul Caneiro murder trial were shown gruesome autopsy photos of the two Caneiro children and their parents.

The day ended with a description of the injuries inflicted on 8-year-old Sophia Caneiro, whose 45-pound body suffered multiple stab wounds, including to her face.

Almost the child’s “entire body suffered injuries,” the state’s Acting Chief Medical Examiner Alex Zhang said during his testimony. A number were consistent with defensive wounds, Zhang said, specifically pointing out injuries to Sophia’s right leg.

A blood-stained purple shirt that the child had been wearing was briefly shown on screen, in between photos of the actual stab wounds.

Paul Caneiro, who has been accused of killing his young niece and nephew, as well as his brother and sister-in-law in their Colts Neck home, was seen wiping his eyes at times in court, with a box of tissues next to him.

Medical examiner details stab wounds, smoke inhalation in youngest victim

Zhang also shared results of a carbon monoxide screening for the youngest victim, which he ordered after seeing visible soot in her airway.

A result of “40% is enough to die from smoke inhalation,” Zhang said. Sophia’s results were 49%, he said.

Her official cause of death was sharp-force injuries and smoke inhalation.

Read More: What to know about NJ's Paul Caneiro murder trial

Father killed by gunfire outside Colts Neck home, examiner says

Zhang also did the autopsy on Keith Caneiro.

The 50-year-old was found dead outside his family’s house on Nov. 20, 2018 — having suffered five gunshot wounds, three of them to the right side of his head — another to his neck and one to his lower back.

Prosecutors have said that Keith was shot and killed at point-blank range sometime after 3 a.m. as he went outside to figure out why his home’s power and backup generator were both off.

The generator had been switched off and a line cut.

Testimony outlines violent deaths of mother and 11-year-old son

Earlier Wednesday, autopsy results for 11-year-old Jesse Caneiro and his mother, 45-year-old Jennifer Caneiro were shared by Dr. Lauren Thoma, the Deputy Chief Medical Examiner of the Middlesex County Regional Medical Examiner’s Office.

Thoma said in addition to stab wounds to Jesse’s torso and left arm, there was an injury to his chin that bore similarity to a gunshot wound — but she was not comfortable documenting it as such.

She said some visible soot in his airway led to a carbon monoxide screening.

Results were within the limits of smoke inhalation as a contributing factor of his death, while the main factor was stab wounds.

Sophia was the first of the four victims to be recovered by firefighters, found on a staircase landing.

Jesse was recovered from the kitchen, where blood smears on a cabinet were shown to jurors last week.

Jennifer Caneiro was found on the stairs leading from the basement to the first floor of the home, court documents have said.

She suffered extensive charring from intense fire damage, investigators have testified, as the fire was set in a basement storage closet.

Jennifer had been shot in the head and stabbed multiple times, Thoma testified on Wednesday, so her cause of death was blood loss from those wounds.

As Thoma described the stab wounds to 11-year-old Jesse, and photos were shown, the defendant was also seen dabbing at his eyes.

Prosecutors cite financial motive, insurance policy

Paul Caneiro has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

In addition to the killings, he has been accused of setting the Colts Neck fire and a fire at his own Ocean Township home, as an attempted cover-up.

Prosecutors say he was financially desperate and was the trustee of an account linked to a $3 million life insurance policy on Keith Caneiro.

Paul and Keith were business partners, co-owning two different companies that had a shared office in Asbury Park.

Bank records entered as evidence showed that Paul Caneiro made multiple withdrawals from the trust over a two-year period, draining roughly $78,000 between 2017 and 2018.

In 2017, $19,880 was paid back into the trust from Paul Caneiro’s personal accounts, but no deposits were made the following year, an investigator testified.

Read More: Inside Paul Caneiro's big expenses before Colts Neck killings

Detectives also detailed the six-figure expenses that had piled up for Paul Caneiro’s household — totalling more than $402,000 in 2017 and $314,000 in 2018.

Previous testimony has also covered their shared businesses having financial struggles.

The only way that Paul — and his other brother, Corey Caneiro — stood to benefit from that policy was if Keith’s wife and children were also dead.

DNA and ballistics evidence precede emotional testimony

Wednesday’s harrowing autopsy testimony followed two days of DNA and ballistics evidence.

A State Police ballistics expert testified on Tuesday about bullets recovered from the Colts Neck home where Keith Caneiro, his wife and their two children were found killed amid a raging house fire.

Bullet fragments pulled from both Keith Caneiro’s and Jennifer Caneiro's heads and bodies were too small to do anything but weigh and describe them, Detective Sergeant First Class Christopher Clayton, of State Police Ballistics testified.

But other bullets and casings found at the grisly scene were tested and found to have been fired from the same barrel of a 9mm semi-automatic handgun.

A “silencer” barrel recovered from Paul Caneiro’s Porsche Macan and a Sig Sauger handgun found in his home’s basement were used in the ballistics tests.

When experts fired ammunition also taken from the Ocean Township home, results matched the patterns of the recovered bullets - as they were heavier bullets than the usual test ammo, Clayton testified.

On Monday, four different members of the State Police Office of Forensic Sciences testified about DNA results from a pair of blood-stained jeans, salvaged from a frozen pile of clothing in Paul Caneiro's Ocean Township basement.

DNA evidence from Sophia and Jesse Caneiro was found on the jeans recovered from their uncle’s house.

For the defense team, DNA results interpreted using STRmix have been a major source of contention. They have repeatedly brought up the lack of a DNA sample from Corey Caniero, as part of their claims that he also should have been treated as a suspect.

“Corey Caniero was never a suspect in this investigation. We followed the evidence. The evidence, it always led us to Paul Caniero,” Lt. Patrick Petruzziello of the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office recently said from the witness stand.

STRmix software, now widely used across the country, allows forensic biologists to interpret DNA profiles. Prosecutors pointed out that the program was able to exclude a different brother, victim Keith Caneiro, as a DNA contributor to the samples collected from the clothing evidence.

Testimony was set to resume in Monmouth County Superior Court on Friday, after a scheduled day off.

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