Thomas Perez Jr.: Do Bodies Float?

Thomas Perez Jr., 53, shared a house in Fontana, California, with his 71-year-old father, Thomas Perez Sr., and their Labrador, Margo. On the night of August 7, 2018, the father went out to check the mail with the dog. Margo came back without him. The following afternoon his son phoned the police non-emergency line to report him missing.

Officers saw a house torn up by renovation work and treated the son as a suspect. Over about 17 hours, detectives kept him from sleep, drove him around town, withheld his medication, told him his father’s body had been found and said his dog would be put down. Perez agreed to a story in which he stabbed his father, then attempted suicide in the interview room. His father, unharmed, was found at Los Angeles International Airport waiting for a flight to visit his daughter in Oakland. Detectives did not tell the son, who was placed on a psychiatric hold.

Perez learned the truth days later when a nurse put his father on the phone. Margo, who had been left at a shelter as a stray, was traced by her microchip and came home. He sued the city in August 2019, and U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee let core claims go forward, writing that a jury could find he had been psychologically tortured. Fontana settled in 2024 for nearly $900,000 without admitting wrongdoing.