Ciera Locklair Breland’s Disappearance: Husband and Warning Signs

Ciera Locklair Breland, a 31-year-old attorney, disappeared during a February 2022 family visit to the Atlanta suburb of Johns Creek, Georgia. Surveillance video placed her at her mother-in-law’s house at 7:17 p.m. on February 24, 2022, and no confirmed sign of her has surfaced since.¹ Her husband, Xavier Breland Jr., is the sole named person of interest but has not been charged in her disappearance. He is currently serving a 12-year Indiana prison sentence on an unrelated firearms conviction.² Her family believes she is dead.

Who Ciera Breland Was

Ciera Locklair grew up around Cleveland, Georgia, the daughter of Nick and Kelly Locklair. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Tennessee and her law degree at Florida State University College of Law.³ In May 2021 she joined the national firm Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani as an associate in Indianapolis, practicing commercial litigation, trucking and transportation, and employment law.⁴

She met Xavier Breland Jr. on Tinder in late 2020, became pregnant in April 2021, and married him shortly afterward in a Zoom ceremony officiated by a justice of the peace.⁵ The couple settled in Carmel, Indiana. Their son was born in the fall of 2021 and was about five months old when Ciera vanished.

The Last Confirmed Sighting

On February 19, 2022, Ciera arrived with Xavier at her father’s home in Cleveland, Georgia. She told her parents she was ready to leave her husband, said she had been moving money into a separate account, and texted relatives, “I’m done. I’m leaving. I don’t want this any more.”⁵

The next day, February 20, she left with Xavier to visit his family in Johns Creek, roughly 90 miles south. That was the last time her parents saw her. They stayed at Xavier’s mother’s home on Highgate Manor Court. On February 22, her cousin tried reaching her by phone and got no response.⁶ Johns Creek police later confirmed through surveillance footage that Ciera was seen at the Highgate Manor Court house at 7:17 p.m. on February 24, 2022. That is the last confirmed evidence of her alive.¹

What Her Husband Told Police

Xavier did not report Ciera missing until February 26, when he contacted the Carmel Police Department in Indiana. He said she had left their Indiana home around 10 p.m. on February 25 to walk to a nearby store in roughly 20-degree weather and never returned.² According to her family, police found no surveillance video of her walking to the store, and she never arrived there.⁶

The FBI stated there is “no evidence that Breland ever returned to Indiana after the trip to Georgia.”¹ Surveillance footage of Xavier’s drive back to Indiana showed only him in the vehicle, without Ciera, the baby, or their dog.⁵ Ciera left behind her personal phone, her work phone, a prepaid phone, her identification, and her credit cards at the Indiana home.⁶

Xavier’s account also shifted. He separately told relatives in a documentary interview that Ciera had walked off “angrily” after an argument over Adderall around 11 p.m. on February 23.⁵ During a February 28 video visitation with his children from a prior relationship, he told them, “Somebody kidnapped my wife” and “She’s not coming home, bud.”⁷ Xavier’s own father remarked publicly that his son “just creates a different story for everybody he’s talking to.”⁸

Warning Signs Before the Trip

Ciera’s cousin and close friend, Shelby Campbell, told investigators and reporters that the marriage was marked by repeated domestic conflicts, some physical, and that Ciera had sent relatives photographs of her injuries.⁵ Around Christmas 2021, Kelly Locklair said her daughter looked “haggard and run down,” had lost weight, and reported being followed. Nick Locklair later recounted that a law enforcement officer warned the family the domestic abuse was “escalating so fast that something really bad is gonna happen very soon.”⁹

Court records showed a Fulton County judge had issued a permanent order of protection on Ciera’s behalf against Xavier, governing his visitation with their children.⁷

The Investigation

The case drew a multi-agency response. The Carmel Police Department, the Johns Creek Police Department, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the FBI Atlanta field office all became involved.¹⁰ On March 21, 2022, the FBI announced a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to Ciera’s whereabouts and said it had “not ruled out foul play.”¹¹

Investigators searched the Johns Creek home with forensic teams and cadaver dogs, but authorities reported the search “did not yield a discernible scent trail at the residence.”⁸¹¹² Ciera has not been found.

Xavier Breland Jr.’s Separate Criminal Cases

Xavier has not been charged in his wife’s disappearance, but two separate cases have moved through the courts. On March 1, 2022, Carmel police responded to a report of an accidental gunshot at the couple’s Indiana home. Xavier told the officer he had been moving a Christmas tree in the garage when he heard the shot, then handed over a missing person flier for Ciera. Investigators noted a problem with his account: when they had executed a search warrant at the same home the day before, they moved the Christmas tree and found no gun nearby.²

That same day, Xavier was arrested on an outstanding warrant from Coweta County, Georgia, for failing to appear on aggravated stalking charges. He was extradited on March 15, 2022, and booked in Coweta County on charges including aggravated stalking, violating a family violence order, and harassing phone calls. The underlying allegation was that he had hidden a GPS tracking device inside a stuffed animal belonging to his daughter from a prior relationship, in violation of a restraining order, to monitor the child’s mother.¹³ On August 11, 2022, a Coweta County jury acquitted him of the aggravated stalking charge after 14 minutes of deliberation.¹⁴

The firearm from the Carmel garage produced a different result. Xavier had a 2005 class B felony burglary conviction out of Marion County, Indiana, which classified him as a “serious violent felon” barred from possessing a gun.¹⁵¹⁶ On June 11, 2024, an Indiana court found him guilty of unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon.⁸ In July 2024, he was sentenced to 12 years in the Indiana Department of Correction. He is incarcerated at a facility in Pendleton, Indiana, and is appealing.²

Where the Case Stands

As of early 2025, the Johns Creek Police Department reported no new active investigative leads. Lt. Eric Rozier said investigators maintain “faith that the truth will come to light.” Xavier Breland Jr. remains the only named person of interest and has not been charged in connection with his wife’s disappearance. The FBI’s reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to Ciera’s whereabouts is still active.²

Ciera’s parents obtained custody of the couple’s young son and brought him home to Georgia.¹⁷ Kelly Locklair told NewsNation, “Every day, it becomes solidified in your mind that she’s definitely not coming back ever and that her son’s never gonna see his mother.” Nick Locklair said his daughter would never have walked away on her own: “She would not have left that child.”⁹

1
WRTV. Ciera Breland Case: Georgia Police Say Video Confirms Missing Carmel Woman’s Last Location
2
IndyStar. Ciera Breland Disappearance
3
NBC News. 31-Year-Old Ciera Breland Vanished in Johns Creek, Georgia
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Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani. Gordon Rees Welcomes Twenty-Seven New Attorneys in May
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The Northeast Georgian. Ciera Breland Missing 8 Months, Featured in TV Documentary
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Fox 5 Atlanta. Ciera Breland’s Disappearance Timeline
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WSB Radio. Details of Zoom Call Contradict Story Missing Woman’s Husband Told Police
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Fox 5 Atlanta. Ciera Breland’s Husband Found Guilty of Firearms Charge
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NewsNation. Family Pleading for Tips in Disappearance of Ciera Breland
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City of Carmel. Missing Person: Ciera Breland
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FBI. FBI Announces Reward for Information Leading to Ciera Breland
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Fox 5 Atlanta. Ciera Breland Disappearance: Renewed Hope for Answers as New Documentary Premieres
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Fox 5 Atlanta. Ciera Breland Disappearance: Husband Back in Georgia Facing Unrelated Charges
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Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Husband of Missing Indiana Woman Found Not Guilty in Separate Coweta Stalking Case
15
WIBC. Husband of Missing Carmel Woman to Be Extradited to Indiana
16
FindLaw. Xavier Breland Jr., Indiana Court of Appeals
17
ABA Journal. After BigLaw Associate Goes Missing, Her Husband Is Named a Person of Interest