Talking Dateline: Slow Burn

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1:07Hi, everyone. I'm Blaine Alexander, and today we are talking Dateline. I am joined by my good friend, Andrea Canning, to discuss her episode, Slow Burn. Hi, Andrea. Hey, Blaine. If you guys haven't seen the episode yet, you can stream it now on Peacock or listen in the Dateline podcast feed and then come right back here. Later on, we'll have an extra clip from the victim impact statement made by Jennifer's mother, Bet Caritas. And then after that, we will answer some of your questions from social media. Okay, Andrea, let's talk Dateline. Let's do it. So before we jump into all of it, Andrea, can you just give us a quick recap of this episode?

1:40Yeah, I mean, this one started out with, you know, there's a fire at Keith Canaro's house. He's an entrepreneur, wealthy, very large home. And his family is inside the house and they are dead. And Keith is dead. And the whole family, it appears, has been murdered. Then there is another fire 10 miles away. So the first one's in Colts Neck. The second one is in Ocean Township, New Jersey. And everyone's OK in that house. This is now Paul Canaro. This is Keith's older brother. So two fires not too far away from each other, two brothers. Police start to quickly suspect that this could be Paul Canaro.

2:22that he is at the center of both of these fires and the four murders. They wind up charging Paul with arson for his own house and arson for his brother's house and the quadruple murder of his brother's family. And he was convicted of all of his crimes. So this was one of our hour-long episodes. And this one just hit me so hard because in the entire first act, I was just on this emotional roller coaster because you show this beautiful family photo with these kids. We know that they weren't in school, but I'm thinking, okay, hopefully they were at camp or maybe they were with a friend or a family member.

3:02And I just would not allow myself to believe that they had been killed too. I know. I know. That's what made this episode for me just so much harder. When you are doing this to children, I mean, it just takes it to another level. You know, what innocent children, 8 and 11, this is their uncle. You know, I mean, Jesse took him to school for Special Persons Day. What? That just gutted me when I heard that. What are you doing? Like, I just, I don't, like, it defies logic, the whole thing. And I think the other piece of this is that it just, that they were stabbed. I mean, that is such an unbelievably up close personal way to kill anyone, right?

3:46But to kill a child. And so as I was watching your storytelling through the first act, I'm thinking, okay, we know there's a body outside. Oh, okay. It's Keith. He's dead. But then as they found more, I'm like, oh my God, like there were more, there were more. It was, the whole thing was stunning to me. I want to touch on your interview that you did with the first responders. And I was so glad that you were able to speak with them because I think anytime we can talk with first responders, especially as I mentioned, when you have these stories of house fire and they go in and it's like, okay, what are we going to find?

4:16Who are we going to find? What does it look like? I wonder if you can just tell me a little bit behind the scenes about your conversations with them, because these guys were clearly so affected by what they saw when they found Jesse and Sophia. What was it like sitting down with them? Well, first of all, you know, our volunteer firefighters in this country, I don't think get enough applause, kudos, right? Pats on the back. They do this for free. And that Adelphia Fire Company was all volunteer. So first of all, it's such a selfless position. I mean, all firefighters, volunteer or not, are very selfless individuals, and they care a lot about the community.

4:57But then it's sort of like you take it up a notch when you don't even get paid, right? I mean, And you could just see it in their eyes when they talked about, you know, especially Carmelo, you know, when he held the Sophia in his arms when he, you know, and we didn't actually show the whole thing because it was just, it was extremely sad. But he was just still, I could just see it in his eyes how horrible that moment was for him when he realized that it was a little girl that he had picked up. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that was when I was watching it, I know that I was affected by it because I'm thinking, okay, maybe, you know, maybe it's his wife, maybe it's Jennifer.

5:38And then to realize, oh, no, this entire family is gone. Well, and the mayor, JP, the former mayor, he would not, he refused to even talk about the injuries of the family, of the mom and the two kids. He wouldn't even, he's like, I'm sorry, I'm not going there. I'm just, I'm not even going to get into that. And I don't blame him. You know, it's just, it's so graphic. It's so horrific. It's still so hard for people, even to this day, to talk about it. But yeah, I want to talk about what was our reporter's name? Monica. Monica. Monica Guy. Monica Guy. I thought, what a fantastic interview. I mean, one, she's a reporter, right?

6:11And so she's there. She knows what's going on. But two, she knows the family. She clearly knows the community. I mean, this is something that just her in a certain way. I loved having her voice in this story and just hearing her perspective. She was a unique. Yeah, because it is a small town, right? And then to be not only your neighbor, than you're a reporter covering the story. And she said, you know, in the story you heard her, she said it was the worst day of my career. Yeah. You know, because like tragedy just doesn't usually strike that close to home for media, right? And for Monica to be able to sit down and talk about it was really, like it was really impressive that she was able to get it out, but in such a like really heartfelt way.

6:56Of course. She didn't want anyone thinking she's trying to get attention for this or anything because she's not. You know, she was there to honor them and just talk about how deeply it affected the community, what wonderful people they were. That was Monica's, you know, reason for doing the episode. Yeah. Well, it was a powerful voice to add to the episode. She really had a powerful voice. I agree. She did. Speaking of, I was so impressed. I loved hearing from the friends who knew Jesse and Sophia, the siblings. Because, I mean, gosh, how I was struck by the fact that they were so young when this happened.

7:34And now they've grown up. They're several years now removed, what, six, five, six years. But the fact that they were obviously so impacted by this. And it was such a large moment, especially in the life of a child. I thought that hearing their voices really just kind of drove home what this did to the community. I mean, we like in our in our town, we just we just had a young boy. and my daughter's friend group die of cancer. Oh, gosh. I'm so sorry. I saw how that just hit the young community so hard. It was really devastating for them. But that's one of those things you can explain. That happens in life.

8:12People get sick, right? It's not fair and it's sad, but it happens. It happens, yeah. But to have to explain to your children that their best friend's uncle killed them. You have to explain evil. You have to explain that someone is evil, someone is mean, right? And that's a lot harder to drive home to a child. I don't know how those poor parents told them the news. It's really hard to imagine having to tell your children that. And kids grow up together, right? I mean, that's their sense of safety is their friend group and the people that they're around. So I'm really glad that they spoke. What was it like for you talking with them?

8:52How were they during that process? Well, I know it was really hard for them. They really wanted to do it. That's the thing. There was no pressuring of these kids. Because the moms were going to do it. And that's important to say. Yes, they wanted to do this very much. Because the moms were going to do it. And the kids were going to do it. And then the moms decided they couldn't handle it. You know, it was just too hard. So they backed out. But the kids were like, no, we're not backing out. We want to do this. We want to do this for our friends. They pulled it together and I tried my best to put them at ease.

9:21And they were like just lovely, lovely children, teenagers. And it hit me when, you know, the boy said, I was talking to him before we started the interview. And he said, I'm a senior. Yeah, I'm graduating. And it hit me in that moment. And I thought, wow, Jesse would have been graduating. Yeah. Yeah. You know, like with his class this year. And that just drives it home even more, right? Of where he would be now. When we get back, we will hear some of the emotional victim impact statement made by Jennifer's mother at Paul's Sentencing.

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11:28You know, I have to say, I talked about the fact that I went on an emotional roller coaster in Act 1, but probably the first three acts, I was all over the place watching this. And it was funny because Jay and I were watching this together, so I'm like, emoting out loud if he's giving his thoughts. He's like my husband. He's like Tony. He does that. Just kind of, what are we thinking? Because I always go into it pulled. I hadn't read any of our stuff in the file or anything. And so at first, I remember when you mentioned that he had been taken to school for Favorite Person's Day or, you know, I was thinking, oh my God, it might be him.

12:00They're spending so much time talking about Paul. But then when I heard that there was a fire at his house, I said, no, no, no, no, no. I was wrong. It's not him. They're Now being targeted, right? Yeah. That was exactly what I thought. And I remember thinking, oh my goodness, is it for their money? Is it people are jealous of, I mean, I really started, that one threw me for a loop, which I'm sure was the point of him doing that. That definitely threw me for a loop in that. The whole thing was stunning to me. We see these stories so often, and I know you've had some, I've had some, where someone tries to set a fire to cover up the evidence.

12:33And in some way, it doesn't work, right? I think that when I saw that part about him going up and unplugging the security camera in the middle of the night, it's like, okay, that clearly that, you know, Blaine, it's not the first time that I've, I had a story last year, where the killer, you see him walking up to the camera, and disabling the camera. I'm like, what? Do you not think that these images will be? Telling? Like captured? I don't understand. What do you think happens up to the point where you disconnect? You know, you see these people who think things all the way through in so many different ways.

13:10And that just seems like it's such an obvious miss. Well, and it made me think of, you know, in the case of Nancy Guthrie, which is still unsolved. And of course, you know, our hearts go out to Savannah for that. And we really, if anyone obviously has any tips, you know, call the FBI. But, you know, that was such a big part of that story as well. You know, the final image of someone disconnecting her camera. And it seems to keep coming up in these Dateline episodes, how the cameras factor into things. It does. I think it got a lot of people thinking about their own security, their home security systems in a different way.

13:46And it does bear pausing on that, too. I want to give that number 1-800-CALL-FBI. That's the number that we've been putting out there. Thank you for doing that. Savannah and her family so much. Like it's it's it tears at us at all at all times. It really does. 1-800-CALL-FBI. We just want it solved for Savannah and her family. I'm glad that we got a chance to put that out there because people are always listening, especially our Dateline listeners. I mean, you and I talk about how astute our Dateline viewers and listeners are. And so if they know anything, please, if you know anything, call FBI.

14:17I want to talk about the money here. It's certainly no stranger to a Dateline plot that there's insurance money involved, that there's money. But when you set the sum,$1.5 million, I was shocked at just how that's not a lot of money to massacre your entire family, including children, right? And I say this delicately because there's no amount of money that's worth killing anyone or your family or anything like that. But$1.5 million, I was honestly expecting the number to be higher, right, if that's kind of what he stood to gain. But they say it was more than that. The prosecutors say it was more than that, that he was jealous.

14:57He was vindictive. He was angry with his brother. And then if you looked at the one section of the email section where Paul and Keith were emailing each other and Paul says, I don't want to sell the pest control business right now. I want to wait. And you can see how Keith controls everything. He's like, no, we're selling now. Because Keith was the one with all the money. He was what, 90 %? It was 90 % his business? So the pest control was 50-50. And then the IT company, which had been very successful in the past, was 90-10 for Keith. And the IT business did very, very well. But then, you know, it's the need for an IT business, like outsourcing IT, you know, is just fading away, right?

15:46So an AI is getting involved in that. And so anyway, he realized, he's like, you know what, this has been a good run. It's time to get out of the IT business. And I just want to sell everything at this point, you know, just be done with the pest control. So Paul didn't like that. And so it was more like the prosecutor said, you know, greed, revenge, you know, kind of a cauldron of bad blood, right, on Paul's side, really. And Keith, you know, some said that Keith was growing tired of his brother and, you know, taking care of him. And also he had caught him, you know, according to prosecutors, Keith had caught him stealing.

16:30So he was really getting, you know, frustrated with the situation. And Paul was living above his means with his other woman, his daughters, all of his fancy cars. And, you know, he wasn't bringing in enough money to cover all that. I think you labeled it right when you called it a story like Cain and Abel. Yeah. It was very akin to that, you know, this deep jealousy. I did have one question, and I wonder if you could answer this for me. I wondered why Keith texted Paul in the middle of the night to say, hey, looks like my generator's out. I'm going to go outside and fix it. Were they already talking?

17:05So what we learned was that Keith was like the businessman. Paul was the tech. Paul was the techie, the guy who took care of everything for Keith. Paul's the guy who fixes everything. So probably Paul had a feeling that he would come out there and sure enough, it was a trap, right? He led his brother outside to a trap, which is so scary that he was lying in wait. Of course. Let's talk a little bit about, so of course, he's arrested, he's charged, and it goes to trial. Let's talk about the trial. Specifically, I want to talk about Paul's defense attorney, Monica. Oh, Monica Mastalone. Yeah, Monica Mastalone.

17:54And I've got to say, one, when she, when you, I think you had a tease at the end of Act 5 of, there's a third brother. I thought, maybe it was the third brother. I mean, I was all over the place with this episode. Let's call it what it is. Monica had a very difficult case to defend. Very. I mean, the evidence was really stacked against Paul. So, you know, I think she did a good job for what she had to work with. But that's one you can call an uphill battle, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. It sounded like – I want to ask you about Paul's family throughout all of this. It seemed like they were standing by him and supporting him.

18:31do interviews. They weren't interested. But yeah, the daughters testified for him. The family showed up to court. I don't know how much, but they definitely were trying to help him. But yeah, they wouldn't speak to us. Well, one family member we did hear from, and this is our extra sound, we also heard from Jennifer's mother, who spoke at Paul's sentencing hearing. um tell us a little bit about her and then we can listen to what she had to say yeah i mean the family also declined to do interviews jennifer's family what i know from their testimony in the courtroom is just how gutted they are how devastated they are how how does a family move on from something this horrific well let's listen to what she had to say in court Jennifer, my daughter, was a beautiful person.

19:31She was warm, vibrant, caring, wife, daughter, sister, friend, and most of all, a wonderful mother. Keith was a loving and devoted father, husband, son, and brother. He had a brilliant mind, and his success was only because of his incredibly hard work and doggedness. He was the son I never had. A true, loving son. A man who would be there to help anyone in need. Jennifer and Keith had the same birthday and sadly now share the same day of passing. My grandson Jesse. I wish I could have seen him grow up. He had a mind like his father's. So smart. Deeply interested in history.

20:42A kindest heart. Cared about everyone. Sophia, my beautiful granddaughter. So young, she loved to dance, sing, play with makeup. She'd put on makeup better than I did. She was joyful, spirited, and kind like her mother. Jessie would be graduating now and going to college in the fall. Sophia High School lives stolen there is not an hour in the day I do not think of them and to think of them is to think about this terrible thing how their last moments were terrifying painful and horrific how each of them looked at their Uncle Paul as he killed them killing them in front of each other like an animal.

21:46Wow. That's hard to hear, right? I mean. Wow. Yeah. But at the same time, she's so well-spoken. She hit like every point as hard as it is to hear. That was like so powerful. I mean, she really drove it home. She did. I think watching them, they had to look into the face of their uncle as he slaughtered the family. And then ultimately then that's unbelievable. And we, you know, we had someone saying that in one of the interviews and I said, I, you know what, I don't really want to include that. You know, and sometimes you just make that editorial choice because it was just, it's almost too painful.

22:27And like, maybe that's the wrong call. I don't know. But you know what? I think that, and I had this experience recently with a story that involved kids too. I thought about you as I watched this piece because obviously we're both mothers and there is something about doing these stories where children are involved, where children are harmed. It's the worst. That is just so hard. It is the worst. It really is the worst. It's like, oh, I'm like, I'm on the verge of tears right now. oh yeah i think that you handled it so well though i mean both talking with the friends who had had to deal with such a tragedy so young in in honoring the kids jesse and sofia i think that you handled it so beautifully and it's not easy um well they i understand they made it easy for me you know because they were they were so lovely you know cassie our producer wanted to remind me of something and this will this will lighten the mood for a moment here for all of us Okay, we'll take it, please.

23:23We do these long interviews, and we are constantly interrupted by weed whackers, lawnmowers, planes, trucks backing up. Trains, yes. People with bad mufflers going by, talking, clanking. I mean, literally, you name it. Police sirens, whatever. And we were doing an interview, and I guess it was with JP, the former mayor, and we kept getting interrupted by chickens. because they every time they would lay an egg they that's what the owners told us of the facility that whenever they lay an egg they start clucking or whatever and so we i was like that's a new one i was like the chickens was there just a chicken farm right there beside your some type of like barn setting yeah and the chickens were like out back and so um yeah it It was kind of funny because, you know, it's like add it to the list.

24:21A new sound disruptor, chickens. That is hilarious. You know, I've got to say, we do interviews in some interesting places. Well, no, this was a well-told episode. I really appreciated it. And thank you for this conversation. This was a good one. It was a tough one. But yeah, always like having these conversations with you, Blaine. Agree. Thank you. Coming up next, we're going to answer some of your questions on social media.

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26:06Hello, everyone again. Blaine had to go off on a shoot. So we are here with the incredibly talented and hardworking producer of this episode, Cassandra Marshall. Wow. Hey, Cassandra. Hey, Andrea. Or Cassie, as I like to call you. Yes. So you are here to help us with our social media section. All right. Let's start with, this is from Flutie Fan. She says, Keith was shot in the head and still ran outside. That's quite a feat. But do we think that was in the house? Probably not, right? No, I can understand why a viewer might be confused at that point. It's sort of the way the investigators felt. I mean, they get to the house.

26:50They see him out there. They see he's shot. There's a fire going on. But what they learn in the next couple of days and weeks is they find the shell casings out in the yard. And so in that moment, they didn't know that. But later, they, based on that evidence, conclude that, you know, he was shot at multiple times out in the yard. And then later, they sort of get access to his electronic equipment, Keith's, and learn that, you know, the electricity had gone out in the house. And so he got an alert about that. And he went outside to check the generator, the backup generator, which was near the area where he was found.