Ciera Breland disappearance: $10K reward offered as family search for missing mother
JOHNS CREEK, Ga. - The family of a missing 31-year-old mother from Indiana on Friday morning flooded Johns Creek, Georgia, where police said she was last seen on Feb. 24. A $10,000 reward is now being offered for information that leads to her whereabouts.
Ciera (Locklair) Breland was last seen at 7:17 p.m. on Feb. 24 at a home along Highgate Manor Court in the Parsons Walk subdivision in Johns Creek, the Johns Creek Police Department confirmed on Thursday. The address given by police is the same address family members have said is the home of her mother-in-law.
CIERA BRELAND LAST SEEN AT MOTHER-IN-LAW'S HOME IN JOHNS CREEK
Johns Creek police say investigators were able to last place Ciera Breland at this home on Highgate Manor Court on Feb. 24, 2022. (FOX 5)
Family of Ciera Breland canvass neighborhoods
Two weeks after a missing person's report was filed in Indiana, family, friends, police, and volunteers gathered to canvass a couple neighborhoods in Johns Creek. Their focus on Friday was two neighborhoods along Medlock Bridge Road where police believe Ciera may have traveled through during her stay in Georgia.
FRIENDS, FAMILY PLAN ORGANIZED SEARCH FOR CIERA BRELAND
Family and friends of Ciera Breland canvass neighborhoods off Medlock Bridge Road on March 11, 2022 where she may have visited during her stay in Georgia (FOX 5)
In addition to the flyers being passed out, the Johns Creek Police Department also set up electronic signs at two places along Kimball Bridge Road asking for the public's help. They also have reached out to several commercial electronic sign companies to help plaster Ciera's face and information across metro Atlanta.
"We are pulling in every resource we can," said Johns Creek Police Lt Gregory Todd Hood.
Investigators also announced a $10,000 reward for information that leads to Ciera.
The Johns Creek Police Department put up electronic signs asking for help in finding Ciera Breland on March 11, 2022. (FOX 5)
Investigators update timeline surrounding Ciera Breland's disappearance
Family members said Ciera and her husband traveled to Georgia to visit with family. She arrived in Cleveland, Georgia at her fathers’ house on Saturday, February 19. Family members said the 31-year-old got to see her nieces and nephews for the first time since she moved from metro Atlanta to just outside of Indianapolis after taking a job at a new law firm. FOX 5 is told it was a good visit with family.
At some point during the stay, family members said she asked if she could move back in with them. Despite the request, she left the next day with Xavier to reportedly visit his family just north of Atlanta.
This was the last time her family saw her.
TIMELINE OF CIERA BRELAND'S DISAPPEARANCE
Family and friends of Ciera Breland pass out flyers in Johns Creek on March 11, 2022. (FOX 5)
Police now confirm Ciera made it 45 miles southwest to his family’s home in Johns Creek, Georgia. Investigators have not released too many details from there. She was last seen at a home off Highgate Manor Court in the Parsons Walk subdivision on the evening of Feb. 24.
Police said the couple was driving a white 2017 Volkswagen Tiguan with Georgia tag RMB 5869. An FSU Law School frame surrounds the license plate. Family members are hoping someone saw the vehicle they were driving sometime in that week and will step forward to tell investigators when and where that was.
CIERA BRELAND DISAPPEARANCE: FORMER SISTER-IN-LAW PLEADS FOR JUSTICE
On Feb. 22, her cousin and best friend tried to call her but go not response.
"She was always communicating with me, with her father and with the rest of the family," said Shelly Campbell adding she would never just disappear like this on her own.
The next day, the couple was supposed to be headed back to Indiana, but family members are not convinced Ciera was with Xavier.
A missing person's report to the Carmel Police Department states Ciera Breland was last seen at this home in the Brookstone Park of Carmel subdivision in Carmel, Indiana on Feb. 25, 2022. (FOX 59)
On Feb. 25, according to the Carmel Police Department’s official missing person’s report, Ciera left their home in the Brookstone Park of Carmel subdivision in Carmel, Indiana sometime shortly after 10 p.m. to walk to the nearby store. She reportedly was wearing a black top and purple shorts in temperatures that were in the mid- to upper-20s that night.
Ciera is described by police as being 5-feet tall and weighing about 120 pounds with blonde hair.
Family members said police told them she never arrived there and there was no surveillance video of her entering the store. They also are concerned because her personal phone, her work phone, and a burner phone were all left behind along with her ID, credit cards, and the couple’s five-month-old son. Family members said she had the burner phone to contact them in case of an emergency.
"I can tell you that is not Ciera in any way shape or form. She is not the one to walk away. She is the first one to call," said Campbell.
GEORGIA POLICE SEARCHING FOR MISSING 31-YEAR-OLD INDIANA MOTHER
Ciera Breland was last seen in Johns Creek, police say
It has been nearly two weeks since Ciera Breland was reported missing. The Johns Creek Police Department now has said she was last seen in the subdivision in the city on Feb. 24, a day before a missing person's report stated she was spotted just outside her home near Indianapolis.
The Carmel Police Department issued an alert for Ciera on their Facebook page the next night, and in the course of the investigation, the Johns Creek Police Department soon joined in the search. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and FBI soon also joined in the investigation.
"We are a secondary, if you will, department, we’re an assisting agency," said Johns Creek Police Lt Gregory Todd Hood.
Despite that, the police department has been busy combing through surveillance video and following up on leads.
"The family is not concerned about jurisdiction and stuff like that. They want to find Ciera," Lt. Hood said.
Investigators hope Friday's canvassing will lead to some substantial leads.
"If we knew her last known location 100%, then we would push the investigation in that direction," Lt. Hood said.
Until then, Lt. Hood said investigators have to go with the report filed by her husband Xavier.
Ciera (Locklair) Breland (Family photos)
Xavier and Ciera Breland
Family members said Ciera had been married to Xavier for a less than a year. The two married after only four months and had a son, Jackson in October.
Ciera's best friend and cousin Shelly Campbell said she wasn't even sure Ciera had even changed her last name yet.
The two had moved from the metro Atlanta area to an Indianapolis suburb earlier this year when she took a job at a new law firm.
Family members believed Xavier exhibited odd behavior in the past including paranoia and unnecessary aggression.
Ciera (Locklair) Breland (Family photo)
Investigators called Xavier a person of interest in her disappearance, but have not charged him in connection to her disappearance.
Why Xavier Breland is waiting to be extradited back to Georgia?
On the same day that Xavier Breland said his wife, Ciera, went missing, the Coweta County courts were revoking his bond on an aggravated stalking charge filed by the Newnan Police Department.
According to court records, Breland had an arraignment on that charge on Feb. 23. The next day, a bench warrant was issued for his arrest and by Friday, the court was working to void his bond.
Xavier Breland Jr., was arrested in Indiana for an outstanding warrant in Coweta County, Georgia on March 1, 2022. (Hamilton County Sheriff's Office)
Details surrounding the charge have not been released, but court records indicate it stems from an incident nearly a year ago, on March 11, 2021. Breland was not arrested on that charge for another three months.
Coweta County jail records indicate Breland was being processed into the facility well into the morning of June 3, 2021.
A grand jury indicted Breland on the charge on Dec. 14, 2021 and an arraignment date was initially set. That court date was pushed several times due to omicron surge of COVID-19.
Breland remained in the Hamilton County jail as of Friday.
Ciera (Locklair) Breland (Family photo)
Family describes Ciera Breland as ‘spitfire’
"She is very charismatic. She is a tiny little person with a huge emotion and presence. She is a spitfire. She is a mother, she is a best friend, she is an aunt," said cousin and best friend Shelly Campbell.
"She’s an aunt, she’s a mother, she’s a sister, she’s a niece, she’s a cousin, she’s a lawyer, she’s a dog lover," said Jeannie Locklair Bush, her aunt, adding her dog Baker is missing her.
The past two weeks have been waves of emotions for the Locklair family as they search for Ciera.
"We're devastated, completely shattered with Ciera's disappearance. It's not like her to not call," said Bush.
Despite accepting the worst may have happened, they remain hopeful for the best outcome.
Ciera (Locklair) Breland (Family photo)
"I am still waiting for her to call and yell at me for telling all of her business to other people that she didn’t want anyone to know," Campbell said. "When she comes back she is going to be mad at all of us."
But what they want most of all is answers.
"We haven't heard from her in a couple of weeks. We know she is out there somewhere and we're asking the community from here to Indiana to help us find her and bring her home," said Bush.
"We’re hoping somebody somewhere has seen her," Campbell said.
FBI JOINS SEARCH FOR CIERA BRELAND, THE INDIANA MOTHER AND LAWYER LAST SEEN TWO WEEKS AGO
The family also hopes their efforts Friday and the efforts of the two police departments as well as state and local agencies will help push the investigation forward. They also are hopeful the $10,000 reward will net more tips.
Anyone with information surrounding the case is asked to call Corporal Rozier with the Johns Creek Police Department at 678-372-8046, the Carmel Police Department at (317) 571-2580, Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-TIPS (8477), the Georgia Bureau of Investigation tip line at 1-800-597-TIPS(8477) or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324).
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