CARMEL, Ind. — New text messages reveal that a missing Carmel woman was scared of her husband, who police have said is a person of interest in her disappearance.
On February 24, Ciera Breland (Locklair) went to St. Johns Creek in Georgia to visit family members with her husband Xavier, five-month-old son and Labradoodle. While her husband told the Carmel Police Department she walked out of the house and went missing two days later, there is no evidence she ever came back from the family trip.
According to newly uncovered text messages, Ciera was questioning her relationship with Xavier and told her cousin, Shelby Campbell, she was scared of him.
“She didn’t know him, and she was realizing very quickly that she didn’t know him,” Campbell said.
Campbell said she and Ciera texted quite often and talked about everything, including Xavier.
“I’m seeing things that scare me a lot for a future with him and they aren’t the kinds of things that you can accept and live with,” Ciera texted Shelby last summer.
In August 2021, during an exchange about Xavier, Ciera texted her cousin, “I’m really scared and idk what to do.”
“She would say ‘Oh I think he’s really going to hurt me’ and I said something back to her and she said ‘Shelby I’m not kidding like I genuinely think he is capable of doing something very bad to me’,” Campbell said.
Campbell said Ciera was planning to leave Xavier and stay with her family in Georgia rather than return to Carmel.
In some of her final messages, Ciera texted her cousin “I’m at Xavier’s mom’s house…he won’t give me Jaxson so I’m waiting to get him so I can leave.”
Less than a week later, she disappeared.
Police in Johns Creek, Ga. wouldn’t comment on the texts the family shared – only telling us the department has all of Ciera’s correspondence and is reviewing it.
“They’re continuing to get all the information back, all their investigative leads,” Lt. Debra Kalish said. “They’re still searching everything that they can.”
Ciera’s family said they refuse to believe that she is gone. Shelby said she hopes Xavier will tell police what happened for the sake of his and Ciera’s son.
“That baby is going to grow up and he’s just not going to know what happened to his mom,” Campbell said. “I can’t fathom that.”
Xavier Breland is currently being held in a Georgia jail for a charge in an unrelated case.
Xavier’s attorney released a statement:
“The spouse is always the first person the police look at in a disappearance, but in this case Mr. Breland had nothing to do with Cierra’s disappearance. Mr. Breland is devastated by her disappearance which he reported to the police, and if he wasn’t incarcerated on an unrelated matter he would be helping to look for Cierra.”
Attorney Bryan Howard
Ciera’s family said they plan to do another search in Johns Creek this weekend.
Anyone with information on Ciera’s disappearance is asked to call the Carmel Police Department or Johns Creek Police Department. The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for any information that leads them to Ciera.
