Shock in aftermath of deaths

Keith Caneiro, a bullet in his lifeless body, was sprawled on the front lawn of his burning suburban mansion.

A rattled New Jersey neighbor surveyed the Tuesday afternoon scene in disbelief — 24 hours later, he remained stunned. Inside Caneiro’s Colts Neck home were the bodies of his murdered wife and their two kids.

“They were a very nice family,” the neighbor said Wednesday as shock waves rippled through the affluent Monmouth County town. “It’s absolutely terrible.”

The neighbor’s daughter was tight with 8-year-old Sophia Caneiro, and the BFFs went trick-or-treating in tandem just three weeks earlier.

“They were at each other’s house every single day,” the neighbor said. “We went to Sophia’s birthday. We had a really nice, tight group of kids that were the same age.”

On Wednesday morning, the friend’s father explained to his little girl that her dear friend Sophie was dead. He spared her the details, including the arrest of Sophie’s uncle as the investigation into the deadly rampage continued.

“We wanted to tell here that they moved away,” the devastated dad told the Daily News. “But eventually, (we) decided that we have to tell the truth.”

Paul Caneiro, 51, was not charged in the deaths at the home of his brother Keith, 50.

The neighbor recalled first meeting the Caneiros after their precocious oldest child, Jesse, introduced himself.

He “came up and said, ‘Who are you? Do you have kids?’” the neighbor recalled. “(My wife) said, ‘Yes, I have a daughter.’ He said, ‘I have a sister. Let’s introduce them.’

Jesse, 11, was found inside the multimillion-dollar estate with his kid sister and their mom, Jennifer, 45.

The neighbor recounted dialing 911 after a landscaper spotted smoke rising from the property around lunchtime Tuesday. He remembered Keith Caneiro as a nice guy.

“We’re all in shock,” he said. “It’s hard to imagine something like this would happen in today’s world.”