Family reacts to arrest of man accused of assaulting teenagers

BERKELEY COUNTY, SC (WCSC) – Nearly a year after an incident involving two young girls on a hiking trail in Berkeley County, a recent arrest finally gives those involved the closure they needed.

Last Monday, the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office arrested and charged Antjuan Xavier Reed, 24, with first-degree assault and battery, second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor, kidnapping and third-degree assault and battery.

The charges stem from reported assaults in the Cane Bay area of ​​Berkeley County on Nov. 27 and Dec. 2 of last year.

Fourteen-year-old Giana Dolce was returning home from a basketball game with friends around 8 p.m. last November.

On the trail near Shadybrook Drive and Cane Bay Boulevard, her phone was on 3% when Dolce called her mother, Tasha, to come pick her up as she heard footsteps in the dark.

“As I’m on the phone with her, I hear her screaming, ‘Mommy, help,'” Tasha said.

The call ended when Tasha rushed to Giana’s last known location saved on her phone. Shortly after looking around and recruiting a young boy on a bicycle to help, Giana was found lying in a nearby alley.

“She was lying in the aisle; she could barely breathe,” Tasha explained. “She had strangulation marks around her neck. His tongue was swollen.

Someone had come out of the woods and attacked Giana from behind, strangled her unconscious, dragged her into the woods, sexually assaulted her, strangled her again and… had left in the woods.

“She woke up in the woods and was horrified. It was pitch black, she fell into the water while running. She went into fight or flight mode,” Tasha said.

Less than a year after the Dolces moved to South Carolina, Tasha said she tried to find the safest place possible for her family to live.

“It was the most heartbreaking thing you could imagine, you know, it’s my baby. I did everything I could to do right by my kids,” Tasha said. “It was heartbreaking for me. I would have taken it for her because she didn’t deserve what she got.

And a few days later, on December 2, 2023, Berkeley County Dispatch received a second report of an assault on the trail behind Bella Vista Court.

Police learned that a 15-year-old girl had been attacked shortly before 7 p.m. The victim said she dropped her phone during the incident but was able to escape.

With the suspect still unknown, the waiting game, Tasha recalls, was the worst.

“She didn’t feel safe at all. She would stay up all night and go to bed at 10 a.m.,” Tasha said. “We took something from her that she didn’t want to give.”

Genetic testing leads to arrest

When the 2023 incidents occurred, the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office devoted numerous resources to the investigation by canvassing the area, interviewing people, and stopping people on trails.

“We did surveillance. We did a lot of undercover work in that general area, which led us to look at a few different individuals,” Berkeley County Sheriff Duane Lewis said.

And it wasn’t until nearly a year later that Reed was charged with the crimes. The sheriff’s office used genealogy, or genetic testing, to link Reed to the incidents.

“Really, it’s just a last ditch effort when there are no suspects.” It’s easy when a suspect has already been arrested and their DNA is already in the system, but for this case we just didn’t have that,” said Deputy Rachel Herbst.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and FBI field offices in Charleston, Columbia and Baltimore assisted deputies in the investigation.

“I want the people of Berkeley County to know that when these things happen, we pull out all the stops and do everything we can,” Lewis added.

Lewis said Reed made a partial confession during his arrest.

“I actually saw a smile on my daughter’s face for the first time in a long time, because he was arrested and he knew it was him,” Tasha said.

Currently, Reed is being held at the Hill-Finklea Detention Center.

“The justice system will prevail,” Tasha said. “He deserves to stay behind bars. He definitely poses a danger to the community.

Dolce Foundation

Following this traumatic incident, Giana wanted to find a way to help survivors who had experienced similar situations.

“She wants to be able to help others heal and cope, and that will help her too,” Tasha said. “She is an extraordinary young woman and is the strongest person I know.”

The mother-daughter duo created the Dolce Foundation to provide empowerment and mentoring programs, in-home family therapy and other programs to help survivors regain their strength.

“When you go to therapy, that’s great, but what happens when you come home and your child has a tantrum? » » said Tacha. “There’s no one to teach you or show you how to deal with this.”

To learn more about the foundation, visit dolce-foundation.com.

“The only thing you can really do is think that God contributed to this for you to do something better. That’s the only way I can see it,” Tasha said.

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