Forensic tests show Sophia Caneiro’s DNA in multiple locations on a pair of bloody jeans found in her uncle Paul Caneiro’s basement, a scientist told the jury Monday in Paul’s murder trial.
A black surgical-style glove found among the jeans and a T-shirt, which were fused together by water, also contained the 8-year-old’s DNA, the scientist said.
And Sophia’s DNA was also on a knife handle found by investigators at the Caneiro home in Colts Neck, where the girl was killed along with her father Keith Caneiro, 50, mom Jennifer, 45, and brother Jesse, 11, in November 2018.
Paul Caneiro is accused of killing his brother’s family then setting their home on fire, then setting his own house in Ocean Township on fire a short time later to confuse investigators. Prosecutors have alleged a financial motive, that Paul killed his brother — and family — after realizing Keith had caught him stealing from an insurance trust account.
Paul would benefit from the $3 million life insurance policy, but the whole family had to be dead, prosecutors say.
The DNA testimony occurred Monday in Caneiro’s murder trial in Monmouth County as four scientists from the New Jersey State Police Office of Forensic Sciences testified for the prosecution about the items they tested from the two crime scenes.
Scientist Chris Szymkowiak testified about the knife, and jeans, where he described finding Sophia’s DNA on blood stains on the shin, calf and thigh areas of the Levi’s jeans.
The match of Sophia’s DNA to the knife is one in 726 million, Szymkowiak said.
Defense attorney Andy Murray challenged the testimony on several fronts, from the STRmix DNA software the scientists used to analyze their results, which gives probabilities on DNA matching, to physical conditions that could have altered the samples.
For example, Murray questioned Szymkowiak about the jeans, and how they were found in a pile in Paul Caneiro’s basement — with a T-shirt and glove — frozen together by firefighters’ water that froze overnight in the home.
Water could transfer material, DNA in this case, from one item to another.
“It’s possible,” Szymkowiak said.
Scientist Christine Schlenker testified that Jesse Caneiro’s DNA was found on the jeans in a mixed sample, meaning two contributors. She used STRmix for the analysis, she said.
During Murray’s cross-examination, as he elicited answers about DNA contributors and their relatives, Murray asked Schlenker, bluntly: “Were you aware that Paul and Keith Caneiro have another brother?”
Prosecutor Nicole Wallace immediately objected, questioning the relevance.
Judge Marc Lemieux allowed it, and Schlenker answered that the STRmix system accounts for sibling analyses but conceded to Murray that testers would need a reference sample from the brother, Corey Caneiro, to perform such a test.
A detective previously testified that the police investigation never sought DNA material from Corey Caneiro, who the defense has cast suspicion on as an alleged suspect in the quadruple murder.
