There's still no sign of Ciera Breland a year after she vanished, but without her body, her parents said they're trapped in a "tormenting" standstill.
"You know how they say they're waiting for the shoe to drop? We're waiting for the bomb to drop," Ciera's mom, Kelly Locklair, told Fox News Digital. "We're hoping a fisherman or a hunter or someone like that will stumble across her. Just, please, Lord, someone find her."
The 31-year-old Indiana lawyer hasn't been seen since 7:17 p.m. on Feb. 24, 2022, when a surveillance camera recorded her outside her mother-in-law's home in Johns Creek, Georgia, for a delivery.
At that point, Ciera, her husband Xavier, their 5-month-old son and her dog had been in Georgia for more than a week after their mid-February 2022 trip to Ciera's parents' home in the Peach State.
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Locklair said Ciera was "scared" of her husband, a convicted felon who was facing stalking and weapons charges in separate criminal cases.
"Ciera had no intention of returning to Indiana," Locklair said. "She told me, 'However I have to leave, I'm leaving … My furniture can rot. I'm never going back.' That's how desperate she was to get out."
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Locklair said her daughter confided in her the couple was having dire money issues, accused her husband of being abusive towards her and using their child as leverage to get her to stay with him.
Xavier Breland's lawyer could not be reached for comment.
Xavier is the only "person of interest" that police have publicly named since Ciera disappeared, but no charges have been brought against him.
Johns Creek police said last week that there were no updates in the case, but the investigation "remains very active."
Xavier's lawyer, Bryan Howard, denied his client did anything wrong in an interview with Fox News Digital last week, and said the case will never make progress if "police continue to focus" on his client.
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Locklair said she and her husband "know" their daughter is dead after police called to say Ciera was missing but that Ciera's baby was safe.
"She's definitely gone," Locklair said. "That was the first thing my husband said when police called after (Xavier) reported her missing, and the officer said she had walked away without bringing the baby. She wouldn't even take a shower and let anybody else watch the baby."
Locklair described Ciera as a doting mom who lived to care for her son and talked about a time when her son had a rash and she woke up every hour or two to check on him.
"So when they said that, my husband said, 'No, no. There's no way. My daughter, she would not do that. If that's the case, and you're telling me that she's missing and the baby is not with her, then my daughter's dead. She would not leave him,'" Locklair said.
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But Ciera's body hasn't been found, despite several targeted searches in multiple jurisdictions. If investigators discover that Ciera has been killed, her mom hopes her body will be found to help with a potential criminal case.
"That's where we stand now," Locklair said. "We don't want to go forward (with criminal charges) without finding her. We don't want to find her later and run into any double jeopardy issues."
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Without going into details, Locklair said law enforcement has collected evidence and statements in multiple states, but they're essentially pieces of a puzzle without knowing the full picture.
Some items were taken out of Xavier's mom's home, which was revealed in court documents from a civil case after Xavier's mom sued Xavier's sister.
Crime Scene Investigation cut the carpet and mattress from Xavier's mom's home on April 21, 2022, as part of their search, according to the documents from the familial civil dispute that were obtained by Fox News Digital.
Xavier reported his wife missing on Feb. 26, 2022, from their Carmel, Indiana home and told police that she left their house around 10 p.m. the night before, possibly to go to a local CVS, and never returned.
But the FBI has said there's no evidence Ciera ever came back to Indiana from their trip to Georgia.
Xavier's story changed two days later when he told his stepchildren "that somebody took her" and vowed "to find his wife" during a Zoom call that was shared with Fox News Digital.
"Somebody kidnapped my wife," he told one of his kids at the end of the call. "You know what it means when you kidnap an adult? She's not coming home, bud."
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Locklair believes Ciera's body could be in Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky or Indiana.
She's begging woodsmen and fisherman to be on the lookout in those states and call law enforcement with any tips.
There's a $10,000 reward for information in the case.
Anyone with details about it is asked to call 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).
