[chris]

About seven men forced their way into a home on Catamount Road near Holly Hill in January 2014 and left with a 4-month-old girl, the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office said. Deputies found the infant unharmed beside a road in neighboring Berkeley County roughly an hour later.

A 52-year-old woman inside the house was struck in the head with a gun as she tried to shield the child, according to investigators. The men then took the baby and fled.

A resident called 911 as the attack unfolded. Several other people came onto the line during the call, and the crossed voices made it hard for the dispatcher to pin down what was happening and where. Deputies were sent out and began searching for the child.

Investigators said the attack was not random. Sheriff Leroy Ravenell said those responsible had taken 'a helpless child from her caregivers,' and said the investigation would continue until everyone involved answered for it.

On Jan. 22, 2014, the sheriff's office announced that North Charleston police had arrested Rondell Robert Washington, 28, of Charleston. He was charged with kidnapping, burglary, unlawful neglect of a child, and assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. Investigators said six other men were still being sought.

The case against Washington did not hold. First Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe dropped the charges after the defense produced what the solicitor called an airtight alibi. Attorney Mike Dupree said Washington had been taken into custody at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston on an unrelated criminal domestic violence charge around the time the baby was taken, making it impossible for him to have been at the scene.

No one else has been publicly charged in the abduction. Coverage of the case faded after Washington was cleared in early 2014, and the sheriff's office announced no further arrests. The child was returned to her family unharmed.