Dateline: The Ruse - Everything we know about the latest true crime episode 

Dateline NBC returned with a new episode, The Ruse, on December 5, 2025. The story goes back to a 2018 case that still makes people pause and ask what actually happened.

It starts simple: a missing-person call. A son worried about his father. Nothing unusual for the police. Then the whole thing tipped in a direction no one saw coming.

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Dateline: The Ruse - Everything we know

When concern suddenly shifts

In August 2018, Thomas Perez Jr. called the police because his father, Thomas Perez Sr., went out for a walk and didn’t come home. Straightforward situation. Anyone would have done the same.

But the officers walked through the house and noticed things that seemed off to them. Some blood marks. The father’s phone and wallet were left behind. And a cadaver dog reacting in a way they considered meaningful.

Once those pieces clicked together in their heads, they turned their attention straight to the son. And the tone of the whole investigation changed fast, as per Dateline’s story. If you’ve followed cases like this, you know how often a “point of interest” becomes “prime suspect” within minutes.

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Inside the pressure cooker

The detectives brought Perez Jr. in for questioning and kept him there for almost 17 hours. Anyone who has worked around interrogation rooms knows how long that is. People lose track of time. Emotions spike. Logic drops.

During the session, the police told him things that weren’t true. They said they found his father’s body and pushed the cadaver-dog angle again and again.

Dateline reported that, at one point, they even suggested his dog might be taken away or put down.

After hours of this, he broke down. Sleep-deprived, scared, and confused, he apologized and said things that detectives interpreted as a confession. Later, he explained that he never admitted to killing anyone. His mind just wasn’t functioning the way it normally would.

If you know anything about false confessions, his state lines up with many known cases: long hours, heavy pressure, emotional overload. That combination can bend anyone’s sense of reality.

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The twist no one expected

Here’s where the story flips on its head. While Perez Jr. was trapped in that interrogation room, his father was alive. Not missing. Not harmed.

He was at the Los Angeles airport, waiting for a flight. So all the “evidence,” all the pressure, the entire theory, none of it held up once the truth came out.

And the police didn’t rush to clear things up for the son. Instead, they placed him on a psychiatric hold for several days. When he finally reunited with his father, it was emotional but also heavy. You could feel the weight of what happened in that room.

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What happened after

The city of Fontana eventually agreed to pay Perez Jr. nearly $900,000 in 2024. They settled without admitting fault, which isn’t unusual. Many cases like this end the same way, legal closure without real accountability.

The emotional impact didn’t disappear with the settlement. Perez Jr. said he feared stepping outside after everything. Perez Sr. talked about helping his son “get through” the trauma.

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Dateline: Why The Ruse stands out

Lester Holt said he had “never seen one quite like this,” and if you’ve watched enough Dateline episodes, you know he’s not someone who exaggerates.

This story is unusual because the central crime doesn’t exist. But the damage from that non-crime is incredibly real.

The episode goes beyond the timeline of events. It pulls viewers into the bigger conversation: how interrogation tactics work, how far officers can go legally, and how quickly a case can break in the wrong direction when pressure outweighs patience.

The experts in the episode explain it well. The psychology behind false confessions isn’t abstract; it shows up in real cases all the time, and this one is a textbook example.

The Ruse mixes interviews, footage, expert insight, and emotional moments to show how one misunderstanding, mixed with aggressive tactics, created a nightmare for someone who only wanted help.

It’s not just another Dateline story. It’s a look at what happens when the system chases the wrong truth and doesn’t stop soon enough.