Text messages show missing Carmel woman was afraid of her husband
CARMEL, Ind. (WISH) — Text messages sent to News 8 reveal Ciera Breland, who was reported missing in Carmel on Feb. 26, was afraid of her husband, Xavier Breland Jr.
He is a person of interest in Ciera’s disappearance.
Shelby Campbell shared several text messages with News 8 from her cousin Ciera Breland. In them, Ciera tells Campbell she was worried about her safety and talked about wanting to leave her husband. In one message, Ciera said that “if I call and say it’s an emergency or text it then call 911.”
Ciera then gives her cousin her address in Carmel, where the couple lived.
Ciera said in one text that she needs to “stay here because of work. But I literally think Xavier might hurt me bad. I’m afraid to even sleep because I’m scared if he comes in here while I’m asleep.”
Campbell says she remembers Ciera expressing concern about Xavier as early as 2020, when the couple first started dating.
Campbell recalled a conversation she had with Ciera, in which she said, “‘Can you just be on the phone with me while I walk to my car because I don’t know if he’s sitting out there and his behavior is so crazy?’”
Ciera, Xavier, their son Jaxson and their dog took a trip from Indiana to visit family in Georgia in February. Campbell said Ciera was planning to leave Xavier and stay with her family in Georgia.
In some of the last messages Campbell received from Ciera, she said, “I’m at Xavier’s mom’s house and I’m heading to dad’s and he wont give me Jaxson, so I’m waiting to get him so I can leave.”
The next day, Ciera sent her cousin a text that said, “I’ve been down all day until now. I’m depressed now because it’s over for good. But I’ll be fine.”
A few days later, Xavier reported Ciera missing in Carmel. However, authorities in Georgia now say they don’t believe Ciera ever made it back to Indiana.
“There’s no place that we can go visit with her or talk to her. It’s just nobody knows and she’s out there somewhere and that is just, I mean, it breaks my heart. It makes me crazy. Like what do you do with that?” Campbell said.
Campbell said she shared all of the text messages with law enforcement as soon as Ciera was reported missing.
Breland Jr. is in jail in Georgia. He was arrested in Indiana on a warrant from a different case.
Breland Jr. is facing charges of aggravated stalking, harassing phone calls and violating a protective order from a woman who is the mother of his child.
Anyone with information in the case was asked to call the Carmel Police Department at 317-571-2580.