Dumont Home Invasion: Four Men Charged 263 Days After Knife Attack; One Released, Three Held

DUMONT, N.J. — It took 263 days for investigators to make the first arrests in a January knife attack inside a Dumont home, and by the time prosecutors announced the case this month, one of the two men whose vehicles investigators say they tied to the scene had been ordered released while the other three defendants stayed in jail, according to a Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office release.

Andrew Baik, 31, of Cliffside Park; Christian I. Curatola, 31, of Bergenfield; Brendan J. Hayes, 31, of Bergenfield; and Kerby W. Santillan, 31, of Bergenfield, are each charged in what prosecutors call an armed home invasion burglary on Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella announced in a release dated Wednesday, Oct. 7.

Charges are accusations. All four men are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

What prosecutors say happened

Early that Sunday morning, after what the release calls “a dispute among acquaintances,” two vehicles arrived at a private home on Larch Avenue in Dumont. Prosecutors allege several suspects forced their way inside and repeatedly struck an adult man in the head with a knife, cutting him above his right eye. One of the suspects then pointed the knife at a second person in the home and threatened them, the release says, before the group drove off in the two vehicles.

Dumont police responded and identified the two vehicles as owned or operated by Curatola and Hayes, according to the release. Over the following months, Dumont detectives identified Baik and Santillan as two more suspects, and detectives from the prosecutor’s Special Investigations Squad joined the case.

The arrests

1. Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026: Detectives from the prosecutor’s office and Dumont police, with help from Bergenfield and Cliffside Park police, found Curatola and Santillan at their homes in Bergenfield and arrested Baik at his home in Cliffside Park.
2. Tuesday, Sept. 29: Hayes surrendered.
3. Wednesday, Oct. 7: The prosecutor’s office announced the arrests, 13 days after the first three.

Each man is charged with first-degree home invasion burglary (N.J.S.A. 2C:18-2.1), second-degree aggravated assault (N.J.S.A. 2C:12-1b(1)), third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose (N.J.S.A. 2C:39-4d) and fourth-degree unlawful possession of a weapon (N.J.S.A. 2C:39-5d), according to the release.

All four were sent to the Bergen County Jail for first appearances. Hayes was later ordered released, while Baik, Curatola and Santillan remained held pending detention hearings in Bergen County Superior Court in Hackensack, the release says.

The prosecutor’s office ran the investigation under the direction of Chief Jeff Angermeyer, and the Dumont Police Department under Chief Luke Totten, the release says.

What fits — and what still doesn’t

What fits: The release credits responding officers and detectives with linking the two vehicles to named people, says the other two suspects were identified later in the months-long investigation, and lists the same four charges for all four men.

What the public record does not yet show:

• Why it took about nine months. The release credits Dumont’s responding officers and detectives with identifying the two vehicles, but the first arrests did not come until Sept. 24. It does not say what held the case up or what evidence later pointed to Baik and Santillan.
• Why Hayes was released and the others held. Hayes is one of the two men whose vehicles investigators linked to the scene, yet he is the only defendant the release says was ordered released. It gives no reason and lists no conditions.
• The dispute. The release calls the people involved acquaintances but does not describe the dispute, who took part in it, or whether the victims knew the defendants.
• Who used the knife. The release says “multiple suspects” forced their way in and that “one of the suspects” pointed the knife at the second victim. It does not say which defendant is accused of the stabbing or the threat.
• The detention hearings. Bergen TV checked the prosecutor’s press-release page on the morning of Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026, and found no update on whether Baik, Curatola and Santillan are still held.

Open questions

• What did a judge decide at the detention hearings for Baik, Curatola and Santillan?
• What conditions, if any, were set when Hayes was released?
• Do any of the four men have attorneys who will comment? Bergen TV did not find defense lawyers named in the release.

The arrests were reported earlier by Daily Voice, NJ.com and RLS Media after the Oct. 7 announcement.

Anyone with information can reach the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office crime tips line at (201) 226-5532, the number listed on the prosecutor’s website.

Sources: Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, “Four Men Charged in Dumont Home Invasion,” Oct. 7, 2026. Photo: Doug Kerr / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.