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[Music] Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at
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confidential support, and for a more detailed list of content warnings, please see the show notes for this
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episode on your app or on our website. This episode was originally released on Case Files, Patreon, Apple
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Premium, and Spotify Premium feeds as an early bonus for our paid subscribers. These episodes are designed
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to be slightly shorter, allowing us to cover a broader range of cases. To receive these episodes early and ad
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free, you can support Case File on your preferred [Music] platform. On Wednesday, August 8, 2018,
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a call came through to the non-emergency number of the Fontana Police Department
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in Southern California. The caller was a 53-year-old local named Thomas Perez Jr., better
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known as Tom. He lived with his father, 71-year-old Thomas Perez, Senior, or Papa Tom, as he was affectionately
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called. Tom explained that his father had left the house to check their mail sometime between 9:30 and 10 the
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previous evening of Tuesday, August 7. They lived in a culdeac with a communal mailbox located at the end of the
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street, so it was only supposed to be a brief stroll there and back. Thomas Senior took their beloved
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dog, a large husky border collie mix named Margo with him. Minutes later, Margo returned to
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the Perez home alone. Thomas Senior was nowhere to be seen. At first, Tom wasn't overly concerned
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about his father's abrupt disappearance. The pair lived relatively separate lives, and Thomas Senior was
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fiercely independent, with a tendency to make plans and go places without telling
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his son. Tom assumed he'd gone to visit a close friend or family member and would return of his own accord.
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But when the night passed without any word from Thomas Senior and he still hadn't returned by the following
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afternoon, Tom became increasingly concerned. Although Thomas Senior was self-sufficient, he was nevertheless
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vulnerable due to his advanced age, limited English capabilities, and physical frailty.
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Tom feared that his father, who was on a slow cognitive decline, might have mindlessly wandered off while getting
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the mail and could be walking the streets of Fontana disoriented and lost. Tom reached out to the Fontana
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police and his call was put through to community services officer Joanna Pena, who began preparing a missing person's
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report. But as she spoke with Tom Perez, she sensed something was off. [Music] [Music]
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Officer Joanna Pena was alarmed by Tom Perez's demeanor over the phone. She didn't get a sense that he was genuinely
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concerned about his father's well-being at all. Tom spoke in a nonchalant manner
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with no sense of urgency, simply requesting that police keep an eye out for a confused elderly man roaming
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around the neighborhood. "Let me know," he remarked. "It may be my father." "That's
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it." Officer Pena thought that Tom was also strangely aloof and easily distracted. He kept rambling on about
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different topics that had no relevance to his father's missing person's report. Officer Pena spoke to her
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supervisor, Corporal Sheila Foley, and the two women decided to pay Tom a visit to complete the report face to face.
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At the very least, they figured they could gauge Tom's behavior in person and determine if their suspicions were
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warranted. Officer Pena and Corporal Foley arrived at the Perez's two-story, three-bedroom home in Fontana's
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North. It was one of many similarly designed homes built around a golf course and positioned almost
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wall-to-wall with its neighbors. A large black pickup truck was parked in the driveway right up against the garage
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door. Tom opened the front door dressed casually in a pair of white cargo shorts
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and a collared short-sleeved blue shirt with its top buttons undone. He greeted the officers who promptly entered the
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[Music] premises. The officers were immediately struck by the state of their house.
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There was barely space to move with broken furniture, tools, and construction equipment strewn about
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while boxes of possessions were piled in every corner. It was so chaotic that the
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officers felt the home was unlivable. When pressed about the mess, Tom sheepishly explained that he was
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separating from his wife and was carrying out renovations to the home in anticipation of selling it. As a
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contractor by trade, Tom was doing most of the work himself. He had eight projects on the go
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which had left his home in disarray. The officers conducted a rudimentary search of the premises,
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filming as they went on their bodyworn cameras. They were unable to locate Thomas Senior or any evidence to
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indicate where he might have gone. Though they did notice a few peculiar things. The mattress from Thomas
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Senior's bed appeared to be missing, as did a shower curtain from a bathroom. Some of Thomas Senior's
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belongings had also been piled into a messy heap, as though they were about to be discarded.
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Tom explained that both he and his father had been getting rid of some things in preparation of moving out, and
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that he'd recently dropped some of his father's clothing in a Goodwill donation box. One of the walls in Thomas Senior's
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bedroom featured noticeable damage. Tom excused it as part of his renovation efforts, saying that he'd
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worked to remove the wall after his father left. To Corporal Foley, it didn't look
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like typical construction work. She was becoming increasingly suspicious of Tom, who had some
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scratches and bruises across his body. Tom claimed he'd sustained the injuries while working on the house. But
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when Corporal Foley asked him, "Are you sure you didn't argue with your dad?" Tom stumbled over his words as he tried
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to explain himself. The officers also noted that he kept getting sidetracked, talking about
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irrelevant things like his dog's diet. Tom professed that he was just tired, but the chaos inside at the home
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led the officers to believe that a struggle had taken place there. Concerns were amplified when
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Thomas Senior's cell phone and wallet were discovered. If he had left on his own valition like
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Tom claimed, it seemed odd that he would have left behind these necessary items. In the eyes of the police, this
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was a sign that Thomas Senior was no longer alive. Bolstering this belief was the
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discovery of what appeared to be several smears and spatters of dried blood found
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on various surfaces throughout the Perez residence. Some of it had crusted onto the cream
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carpet at the base of the stairs. Tom attributed the blood to his father's finger prick diabetes tests and
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other unrelated innocuous accidents. Whatever the truth, Officer Pena and Corporal Foley felt Tom was
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marketkedly indifferent to the serious matter unfolding. They summoned several more officers to
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the premises who agreed that the situation warranted suspicion. Tom was requested to go to
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the Fontana Police Department downtown to provide a statement. He was reluctant at first,
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but eventually agreed and voluntarily got into the back of a police car to be driven to the station.
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Tom was ushered into an interrogation room where he spoke with detectives Robert Miller and Jeremy Hail. A camera
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above filmed Tom's every word as he openly discussed the basic facts and timeline of his father's
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disappearance. The conversation was mostly polite as Tom offered multiple explanations as to where his father
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might have wound up. He suggested that Thomas Senior could have taken the train to his brother's
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house or to see a close friend of his in the Los Angeles area. Maybe he was heading further north
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to visit his daughter, Tom's sister, in Oakland. While Tom's assertions implied there was an innocent reason behind
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Thomas Senior's disappearance, an entirely different scenario was emerging at the Perez house.
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Police spoke with neighbors who described the father and son as having a volcanic
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relationship. They were known to have screaming matches on their front lawn. On the night Thomas Senior disappeared,
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Tom was also witnessed backing his truck into his garage at a very early hour. Tom admitted that he did pickered with
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his father right before he vanished with the disordered state of their home being
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an ongoing source of contention between the pair. While the two got on each other's
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nerves at times, they remained living together as Thomas Senior had nowhere else to
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go. He was separated from his wife and not suited to the rules of a senior citizen community.
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The two men did their best to coexist, and there was love between them, but they mostly stayed out of each other's
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lives to keep the peace. The one thing that brought them together was their dog, Margo, who Tom
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referred to as their fur baby. Tom had raised Marot from when she was a puppy, and both he and his father
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doted on her by cooking her special meals and sharing in her care. With that in mind, there was no logical
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reason why Thomas Senior would abandon Margo midwalk in the middle of the night. A search of the surrounding
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streets and parklands had failed to uncover any sign of the 71-year-old, and there had been no reported sightings of
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him. With concerns growing that Thomas Senior might have met with foul play and his
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son acting increasingly dubious, police were granted a warrant to search the Perez
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home. They also seized the men's cars, computers, and cell phones, as well as Tom's tools.
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Special equipment was brought in that could reveal traces of blood not visible to the naked eye, even when strenuous
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efforts had been made to clean it up. It indicated that blood had been cleaned up throughout the
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home. But the most ominous find occurred in Thomas Senior's bedroom. A highly trained Kadaava dog
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was brought in and alerted to the recent presence of a human corpse. With that, the relatively benign missing
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person's case shifted into a fullscale homicide investigation. As nightfell on Wednesday, August 8, 24 hours had passed
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since Thomas Perez senior had reportedly been missing. With everything police had uncovered so
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far, they felt they had sufficient cause to believe that a serious crime had taken place involving Thomas Senior's
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son, Thomas Perez Jr. Further warrants were obtained to examine both men's phone and internet
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records while investigators turned up the heat on their prime suspect. Tom Perez was still answering questions
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at the Fontana Police Department when he was informed that police believed his father had come to
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harm. Before long, fingers were pointed directly at Tom himself. He appeared shocked, confused,
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and upset, and was seemingly at a loss for words. He told the detectives that they were quote
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nuts. As the interrogation continued into the night, Tom remained steadfast that his father was still alive
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somewhere. By the early morning of Thursday, August 9, upwards of 7 hours had passed since Tom was first brought
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in for questioning. While he hadn't revealed anything that implicated him in his father's
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disappearance, the police were certain he was feigning ignorance and that he knew exactly what had happened to Thomas
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Senior. The first interviewing detectives finished their shift and were replaced by detectives David Yanush and
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Kyle Guthrie. After being briefed on the case, they were told by a lieutenant that the feeling among the police was
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that Tom had killed his father. Not only did evidence support this theory, as far as they were
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concerned, there was simply no other logical explanation. It was just a matter of
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getting Tom fess up. Detectives Yanush and Guthrie changed tact. They took Tom out for a
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drive to get coffee to lower his defenses. Afterwards, they told Tom they were taking him to a train station to
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check the surveillance videos for any sign of his father. Instead, they drove around
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Fontana on the lookout for any place that Tom might have used to dump his father's body. If they came close to a
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key site, perhaps they could trigger him into talking. Referring to Thomas Senior as Daddy, the
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detectives asked Tom to show them where Daddy was. The detectives stopped at the
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Goodwill donation box where Tom said he had discarded some of his father's clothing. They circled around housing
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estates where Tom said he had been looking to buy before reaching the golf course near the Perez home.
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Tom maintained that he had no knowledge of his father's whereabouts, but as they
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passed by a pond on the golf course, he randomly asked if bodies floated. The bizarre question piqued the
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detective's interest, and they kept driving, waiting for Tom to say more. They eventually came to a remote
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dirt field near the edge of Fontana, where they stopped the car. Tom became visibly nervous and refused
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to get out. This indicated to the detectives that the otherwise benile side held
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importance. Yet, no matter what, Tom refused to entertain the thought that his father was
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dead. Tom had already informed police that he suffered from various afflictions, including high blood
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pressure, asthma, depression, and stress. As the pressure mounted, he said that he
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was starting to feel unwell and asked for his medication from home. The detectives assured Tom that he
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would receive his medication soon, but in their eyes, he was perfectly fine. While he was clearly tired and
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anguished, he was still fully functioning, cognizant, and coherent. Despite this, Tom kept requesting
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medical attention. To the detectives, it seemed like he was trying to weasle his way out
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as they inched closer to uncovering the truth. They told him that going to the hospital wasn't going to help him as it
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was the easy way out. Tom muttered, "But I need I needed attention." Detective Yanosh put his foot down. "No,
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you don't," he said, making it abundantly clear that Tom's attempts to derail the interrogation weren't going
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to work. After their long drive, the detectives took Tom back to the station and resumed their questioning.
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As the hours passed, they relentlessly bombarded him with accusations while his emotions spiraled in all
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directions. One moment, Tom confidently professed his innocence and acted bewildered at the allegations against
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him, while the next he sobbed into tissues, repeatedly asking, "Where's dad? Where's dad? Where's dad?"
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The detectives remained convinced that the remote dirt field near the edge of Fontana held
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significance. They drove Tom back there in an attempt to elicit a reaction, but he gave them
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nothing. Back at the station, Tom's distress heightened as time wore on. Detectives sensed he was reaching a
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breaking point that could lead to a confession. They wondered if Tom would open up to
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someone he knew and trusted. He'd asked to speak with a close friend and business partner of his
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named Carl Pazzza, which gave detectives an idea. Carl was summoned to the station
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where detectives revealed they had overwhelming evidence to indicate that Tom had killed Thomas Senior.
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They said blood was found everywhere throughout the Perez home and that they had video footage of Tom dumping blooded
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clothing. They told Carl they were zeroing in on a site where they believed Thomas Senior's body had been buried,
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but they needed Carl's help in getting a confession from Tom and determining the
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exact location of the grave. Carl was stunned. He couldn't believe that his friend was
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capable of murdering his own father. As far as Carl was aware, the two had a loving relationship, and he'd never had
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any indication that Tom was violent towards Thomas Senior. Nevertheless, Carl agreed to
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help the police. He was permitted to enter the interrogation room to be alone with Tom
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while the pair were secretly monitored. Carl gave Tom a warm embrace and then sat across from him to discuss the
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predicament. "They got you on murder," Carl said. Tom shrugged his shoulders and
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replied, "Impossible." Carl explained that the police had enough evidence to charge him
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and asked point blank, "Tom, could it have happened?" Tom outright rejected the [Music]
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suggestion. The detectives resumed their interrogation, warning Tom that if he didn't help locate his father, he would
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owe the city up to a million dollars in restitution. They also warned that he risked going to jail for the rest of his
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life. Tom didn't budge. He maintained that his father was simply missing. to which Detective Guthrie
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remarked, "He's missing because you killed him." An emotional and exasperated Tom
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continued to deny it. On multiple occasions, Tom requested to terminate the interview and go
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home. The police were incredulous. Did he honestly believe they would let him go back to an active
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crime scene where he could tamper with potential evidence? With their ploy involving Carl PZA
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having failed, it was time for the detectives to come up with another [Music] plan. The Perez family's dog, Margo, was
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brought to the Fontana Police Department and led into Tom's interrogation room. She entered eagerly, her black and white
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tail wagging with excitement as she rushed over to her owner. Tom immediately lit up in her
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presence. After he had showered Margo with affection, she came to rest quietly on the floor near his
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feet. Meanwhile, the interrogation continued. "Detective Yanush put it bluntly to
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Tom." "You murdered your dad," he stated. Tom's mood dropped again, his voice cracking as he responded. No, I
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did not. The detective pressed on. Your daddy's dead because of you. Not only that, but poor Margo had
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witnessed it. At the mention of this, Tom lent back in his chair a perplexed expression
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on his face. Finally, he said, "No." before wiping his eyes with a tissue. It did happen. The detective said you
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killed him and he's dead. You know you killed him. You're not being honest with yourself. How can you sit there and say
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you don't know what happened and your dog is sitting there looking at you knowing that you killed your dad? Look
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at your dog. She knows because she was walking through all the blood. The detectives informed Tom that blood
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had been found on Margo's paws and she was so traumatized after witnessing the murder that she needed to be
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euthanized. Tom looked at Margot, who was lying contently on her belly. The detectives said they'd give
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him a moment alone with her to say goodbye. After they exited the room, Tom dropped
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to the floor and snuggled up against Marot, patting her gently while [Music] weeping. Afterwards, Marot was taken to
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an animal shelter in a neighboring county to be put down. The detectives told Tom, "Your
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dog's now gone. Forget about it." By this point, Tom snapped. He wailed loudly, punching himself in the
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head multiple times and began ripping out his hair. He tore his shirt open before falling back into his chair,
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utterly drained. In the eyes of the police, his conduct was further proof of his guilt.
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Yet Tom remained in denial. Hoping it would compel him to start talking, detectives divulged a
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major development in the case. They told Tom that the police had found Thomas Senior's body and it was in the
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morg riddled with stab marks. Tom sat with his arms crossed over his chest and barely
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reacted. Frustrated, Detective Guthrie said, "We just told you we found your dead dad and you don't give a fuck."
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Tom kept his eyes cast down and continued to gently deny that he'd killed his father. You did, the detectives
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said. Tom stuttered. I don't have any idea. To which the detectives repeated, "You do.
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You do." The detectives continuously reminded Tom that the police had evidence that he
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killed his father and he should therefore just admit it. They told him that the human mind
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often tries to suppress troubling memories and suggested that he might have attacked his father while under the
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influence of his prescription psychiatric medication. The longer Tom was questioned, the less resolute his
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protests of innocence became. Eventually, he became despondent and lost in thought. The detectives asked Tom to
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explain what he thought could have happened between him and his father. They suggested possible
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scenarios in order to jog Tom's memory. Tom offered his own suggestions and provided insight into how they could
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have played out, but stopped short of confessing. Detectives pressed on, building a
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narrative based on their interpretation of the crime scene. They wondered if there had been a
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fight involving a stick or broken beer bottles. Maybe it could have been a knife or
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scissors. "Did you stab him?" they asked Tom. Tom appeared contemplative as though he was trying to remember
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something he couldn't quite figure out. He then said coolly. It's plausible. I think that I
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did. The detectives pushed for more information, asking, "What did you do? Where would you have stabbed
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him?" Tom replied blankly. "Maybe in the belly." Eventually, after 17 hours of interrogation, police pieced together
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enough details to get a rough idea of what transpired. In his investigation report,
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Detective Yanush wrote, "Tom said he grabbed a pair of scissors and went over to the couch and
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stabbed his dad. He said if he was enraged, he probably stabbed him a lot." Tom said after his dad was stabbed, his
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dad went upstairs to the bathroom. Tom heard him fall, so he went up there and saw his dad lying on the
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ground of the bathroom, not waking up. He said he slapped him in the face a few times, but he still wouldn't
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wake. Tom's dog came in the bathroom, and so he tried getting the dog out of the bathroom because there was blood
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everywhere. Once he got the dog out, he then wrapped up his dad's body in the green shower curtain and transported his
00:28:34
body down the stairs and into the garage. He then put his dad's body in the back of his
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truck. The detectives pried Tom to reveal more details about the murder, but he simply replied, "I don't know."
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before vomiting into a trash can. Tom believed he must have killed his father while in a blackoutlike state,
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which explained why he couldn't vividly remember the attack. Tom was clearly racked with
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guilt, remarking, "I'm sorry, Dad. I had no idea. I love you." He had a message for his sister,
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too, saying, "I didn't mean to take your daddy away. I have no idea. I still don't
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understand. Tom was momentarily left alone in the interrogation room, at which point detectives noticed he'd
00:29:36
removed a leather shoelace from his shoe and was trying to take his own life. They rushed in to rescue him before
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promptly restraining him and placing him under arrest. Given Tom's fragile state, he
00:29:50
was placed on a 5150 hold. This provision allows an adult experiencing a mental health crisis to
00:29:58
be involuntarily detained for a 72-hour psychiatric evaluation. Tom was kept in a hospital
00:30:06
over the weekend where staff were given strict orders not to let him have any contact with any
00:30:13
outsiders. Then days after Tom's confession, a young nurse came to his bedside. She broke protocol to tell
00:30:23
him. I know it says in your file not to speak to anybody, but your dad's on the [Music]
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phone. On the night of Tuesday, August 7, 2018, 71-year-old Thomas Perez senior left his home to collect the mail at the
00:30:46
end of his street. But his plans didn't stop there. He walked onwards to the Fontana
00:30:53
train station where he boarded a train to visit his brother. From there, he caught a bus to
00:30:59
a friend's place to stay the night. The next day, Thomas Senior traveled to Los Angeles International
00:31:06
Airport as he'd booked a flight to visit his daughter in Oakland. Thomas Senior hadn't mentioned any of
00:31:14
this to his son Tom as they didn't typically keep one another in the loop of their
00:31:20
plans. Thomas Senior had also absent-mindedly left his cell phone at home, preventing him from contacting Tom
00:31:27
while on his journey. Unbeknown to the older man, as he went about his travels, police
00:31:34
believed he'd been murdered and his son was being relentlessly interrogated as the prime suspect.
00:31:42
Early on in the investigation, Tom Perez Jr. had told the detectives that his father might have gone to Oakland. He
00:31:49
even gave them his sister's details so they could check with her. Instead of doing so, the detectives
00:31:56
remained fully focused on building a homicide case against Tom. By 8:45 p.m. on Thursday, August 9,
00:32:06
over 30 hours had passed since he'd reported his father to be missing. While Tom was still being
00:32:13
interrogated, Detective Robert Miller finally spoke with Tom's sister over the phone. To his shock, she revealed that
00:32:23
Thomas Senior was very much alive and well, waiting for a flight to Oakland at Los Angeles International Airport.
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Officers rushed to the departure gate where they found Thomas Senior, perplexed by all the
00:32:37
attention. Even though he wasn't suspected of any crime, the 71-year-old was promptly detained and read his
00:32:45
rights. He was placed in the backseat of a police car and driven back to Fontana,
00:32:50
unsure of what was going on. By the time Tom Perez Jr. was attempting to take his own life at the
00:33:00
Fontana Police Department. 2 hours had passed since detectives had confirmed that Thomas Senior was
00:33:07
alive. Instead of informing Tom, they placed him under arrest and sent him for psychiatric
00:33:14
evaluation. In the meantime, Thomas Senior was taken to the same interrogation room that his son had been
00:33:21
held in. A flimsy yellow blanket lay bunched on the floor. the same blanket that his
00:33:28
son had used during breaks in questioning to try and get some rest on the ground. The police didn't give Thomas
00:33:36
Senior any information about what had happened to his son, nor did they reveal the allegations that were being leveled
00:33:43
against him. They simply told Thomas Senior that his house was being investigated as a crime scene.
00:33:51
Detectives quizzed him about his relationship with Tom and asked whether he'd ever gotten
00:33:57
violent. Eventually, Thomas Senior was permitted to return home. He broke through the crime scene
00:34:04
tape that encircled the property and headed inside, finding the place to be trashed.
00:34:11
In their search for evidence, the police had sliced open the Perez's leather sofa, emptied the contents of their
00:34:18
drawers and closets, moved their hot tub, and damaged its motor. Even then, Thomas Senior had no
00:34:26
idea where his son was or what he was being accused of. When Thomas Senior finally learned that
00:34:34
his son was in hospital, he wasn't allowed in as the police had placed Tom in lockdown. Thomas Senior tried to call
00:34:43
instead, but he was consistently denied the opportunity to speak with Tom. Days passed before a nurse finally
00:34:51
broke protocol and handed Tom the phone. The moment Tom heard his father's voice on the other line, he dropped to
00:34:59
the floor in tears. Tom was released from his 5150 hold later that day and allowed to return
00:35:08
home. When the father and son were reunited for the first time since Thomas Senior had left home almost a week
00:35:14
earlier, a bewildered Tom asked, "Dad, is that really you?" Thomas Senior replied kindly,
00:35:24
"Yes, it's me." "They told me you were dead," Tom explained. No, no, I'm here," his father responded
00:35:34
as the pair embraced with tears in their eyes. Shortly after, the Perez got a call from the animal shelter where their
00:35:44
dog Margo had been taken. The police had erroneously classified Margo as a stray, which meant
00:35:51
she was permitted to be euthanized. Luckily, Tom had Margo implanted with a microchip, which allowed staff at the
00:35:59
shelter to identify her owners, thus halting her euthanization. When the Perez went to
00:36:06
collect Margot, they were pained to see that she couldn't walk properly. During her time in police
00:36:13
custody, Margot had sustained an injury to the cruciate ligament in her right hind limb, which required corrective
00:36:21
surgery. Other possessions that had been seized from the Perez's home were also returned in a damaged and unusable
00:36:30
state. Even though Thomas Senior had been found alive and well, the police remained convinced that Tom must have
00:36:37
assaulted and killed someone at their home. They obtained a third warrant to search the premises and received
00:36:44
permission to put a tracking device on Tom's truck. Ultimately, their investigations led
00:36:51
nowhere and the case was officially closed without Tom being charged with any [Music]
00:36:59
crime. In hindsight, Tom felt his treatment went far beyond a misguided misunderstanding. When he'd reported his
00:37:08
father missing, he spoke with a Fontana police lieutenant named Ronald Caval. Tom had a poor relationship with
00:37:16
Lieutenant Kaval due to previous interactions on a separate matter. While it was apparent to Tom that Lieutenant
00:37:23
Koval disliked him personally, he nevertheless went ahead with filing a missing person's
00:37:29
report. At the time, Tom remained calm, clinging to the reasonable belief that his father was likely
00:37:37
fine. When officer Joanna Pena and Corporal Sheila Foley arrived at Tom's home to investigate the matter, Tom felt
00:37:45
that they were immediately hostile towards him. They said they'd been summoned to the house by Lieutenant
00:37:52
Caval, which sparked a degree of apprehension on Tom's part, as he sensed that the police were treating his
00:37:58
father's case as suspicious from the outset. Tom was dismayed when the officers barged into his home and began pointing
00:38:07
out purported evidence of foul play. He remained composed and cooperated while offering plausible and honest
00:38:14
explanations to all of their suggestions. The so-called evidence of homicide found at the Perez home was not
00:38:23
as concrete as investigators accepted. The Kadaava dog that had picked up a scent in Thomas Senior's bedroom wasn't
00:38:31
an official police canine, but belonged to a volunteer within the sheriff's department. Then there was the matter of
00:38:39
the dried blood. Police had an image of a door in the Perez home that appeared to have
00:38:45
dried blood smeared on it. Tom agreed that it looked like his door, but maintained there had been no red
00:38:53
marks on it when police officers showed up. Footage taken from the bodywn cameras of the first responding officers
00:39:01
confirmed this. In their search for evidence, police had used a liquid known as blue
00:39:08
star, which is considered to be the first line method of picking up blood stains that aren't visible to the human
00:39:14
eye. Police claimed that Blueest Star conclusively found large amounts of blood in the Perez home. However,
00:39:22
Blueest Star is known to give false positives for other substances, including minerals found in
00:39:29
paint. Tom had been painting the house as part of his renovations, and no lab ever confirmed what the substance was.
00:39:39
Furthermore, no officer would later testify to seeing any visible blood in the Perez
00:39:46
home. Samples of the alleged blood were taken, but no positive identification was ever
00:39:53
made. The Perez's were just told that they were identified as coming from a male.
00:40:00
One police expert asserted, "No reasonably well-trained police officer would have believed that
00:40:07
they had a probable cause to obtain a search warrant in these circumstances." When Tom had first
00:40:17
agreed to go to the police station, he was informed it was in his best interest to do so.
00:40:23
He didn't want to submit to an interrogation as he felt he had nothing to prove, but he ultimately complied,
00:40:30
albeit under protest. He was placed in a tiny interrogation room he referred to as the
00:40:37
police's little box of horrors. During the lengthy interrogation sequences that followed,
00:40:45
Tom repeatedly, specifically, and consistently denied all accusations leveled against him. He even voluntarily
00:40:53
submitted a DNA swab and let officers take photographs of his naked body despite his
00:41:00
discomfort. On multiple occasions, Tom asked that the interrogation come to an end. He also asked to speak with his
00:41:09
lawyer, to be given his medication, to see his doctor, and to be taken to the hospital. Detectives refused every
00:41:19
request. Reflecting back on his experience with the police, Tom said. I felt like they were my capttors
00:41:28
and I had nothing. There was nothing I could do. When threatened with the possibility
00:41:35
of going to jail for the rest of his life, Tom was terrified because under the circumstances, it seemed like a real
00:41:43
possibility. He had refused to get out of the police car at the dirt field near the edge of
00:41:50
Fontana because he felt the situation was getting out of control and he feared the detectives were about to either beat
00:41:57
or kill him. Tom had no idea the police were lying when they told him that his father's body had been found riddled
00:42:06
with stab wounds or that blood had been found on Margo's paws. Tom was left devastated at the thought
00:42:13
that his father was dead and Margo had been put down as a result. By the early evening of
00:42:21
Thursday, August 9, almost 30 hours had passed since Tom Perez first called the police about his missing father, and
00:42:29
he'd been interrogated almost nonstop for 17 hours. During that time, he'd barely eaten or
00:42:37
slept and had remained deprived of his medication. Exhausted, confused, and griefstricken, Tom reached his breaking
00:42:46
point. He later told CNN, "I no longer could see in color. I was seeing everybody in black and white,
00:42:56
and then I felt physical pain, like an electric shock, and it went from head to toe.
00:43:04
As detectives suggested possible scenarios in which Tom lashed out at his father, he started to absorb a false
00:43:11
belief and accept it as truth. Unable to provide his own version of events, he simply went along with
00:43:19
what the detectives told him. If they said, "Well, you stabbed him." Tom would reply, "Okay, I stabbed
00:43:29
him." In Detective David Yanusha's report, he stated that Tom had admitted to stabbing his father with a pair of
00:43:36
scissors while he sat on the couch before wrapping his body in a shower curtain and putting it in the back of
00:43:42
his truck. However, Tom never directly confessed to any of these things. They were Detective Yanush's words.
00:43:53
Eventually, Tom became fully convinced that he had murdered his father and attempted to take his own life as a
00:44:01
result. He later recalled to CNN, "They attacked me right at the very thing that I loved most, my fur baby and
00:44:10
my father. And it didn't seem like there's anything left. I couldn't see the reason to continue with more
00:44:20
pain." By the time Tom was placed under arrest and read his rights for the first
00:44:25
time, including his right to remain silent, the police already knew that Thomas Senior was still
00:44:32
alive. They admitted Tom to the hospital for psychiatric evaluation regardless, securing him in excessively tight
00:44:40
handcuffs that caused extreme pain and discomfort. Tom asked for them to be loosened, but his requests were ignored.
00:44:50
He was subsequently kept in hospital for 3 days where he endured continual mental
00:44:56
anguish. As Tom's attorney, Jerry Steering, explained, they didn't have the nerve to
00:45:03
look Tom in the face. They didn't have the nerve to tell him his dad was okay. A year after the events, Tom Perez
00:45:14
Jr. sought accountability for what he endured. He filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Fontana, naming a
00:45:22
total of 15 Fontana Police Department employees that played a role. He accused the group of false imprisonment and due
00:45:31
process violations, among other offenses. As a direct result of his ordeal, Tom suffered substantial damages, including
00:45:40
lost income, damage to his personal property, medical and psychological bills, and emotional and mental
00:45:48
distress. In the direct aftermath of his ordeal, Tom feared answering the phone or leaving his home, even to collect the
00:45:56
mail at the end of the street. According to the lawsuit, the amount of damages amounted to in excess of $10
00:46:05
million. Additionally, Tom had paid approximately $12,000 towards Margo's ongoing medical needs as a result of the
00:46:13
injuries she sustained while in police custody. In their depositions, the police members involved maintained that
00:46:22
they had reason to believe Tom was lying to them. In turn, they deceived him in order to get
00:46:30
information. They maintained that they didn't cause Tom's emotional distress and rejected his assertions that the
00:46:37
trained officers should have been able to detect his sincerity and swiftly terminate the interview.
00:46:44
They regarded Tom as a quote startlingly odd human being who lived a life filled
00:46:51
with unexplainably bad decisions given he had a history with the police. They criticized his character
00:46:59
claiming who admits to murdering their father when a murder never happened. Tom was accused of creating a
00:47:07
money motivated falsehood and deemed undeserving of winning anything in the litigation.
00:47:15
Fontana city officials were fiercely defensive of the police officers and vigorously denied that they had violated
00:47:22
any state or federal law during the investigation. They maintained that the police had good legal cause to suspect
00:47:30
Tom Perez of serious criminal activity. They claimed that Tom voluntarily agreed
00:47:36
to be questioned in relation to his father's disappearance and denied claims that he was interrogated for 17 hours
00:47:43
straight or deprived of food and his medication. They asserted that Tom was voluntarily undergoing questioning and
00:47:52
therefore free to leave at any time. A US District Court judge disagreed. In a summary judgement, she
00:48:03
wrote that circumstances suggested to Tom Perez that he was not free to leave. She also maintained several
00:48:12
claims on his behalf, stemming from allegations that the officers had falsely imprisoned Tom and inflicted
00:48:20
emotional distress. However, after reviewing hours of the interrogation tapes, the judge
00:48:27
sided with the police on some issues. She also ruled in their favor when it came to Tom's claims that the police had
00:48:35
unlawfully searched his home and used excessive force. The judge allowed the lawsuit to
00:48:42
proceed, stating, "A reasonable juror could conclude that the detectives inflicted
00:48:49
unconstitutional psychological torture on Tom Perez." Their tactics indisputedly led to Tom's subjective
00:48:57
confusion and disorientation to the point he falsely confessed to killing his father and tried to take his own
00:49:05
life. He was sleepdeprived, mentally ill, and significantly undergoing symptoms of withdrawal from his
00:49:12
psychiatric medications. There is no legitimate government interest that would justify treating Tom
00:49:20
in this manner while he was in medical distress since the Fontana Police Department already had two warrants to
00:49:26
search his person and property and he was already essentially in custody and unable to flee or tamper with any
00:49:37
evidence. As soon as the case was permitted to go to trial, Fontana city officials entered settlement
00:49:44
talks. In 2024, Tom Perez agreed to settle the lawsuit rather than take the case to trial. He held concerns that a
00:49:54
jury award could be overturned on appeal on grounds of qualified immunity. Qualified immunity protects
00:50:01
law enforcement officers from lawsuits involving much of what they do in the scope of their jobs.
00:50:08
In the US, it is legal for police to lie to adult suspects during questioning. They are trained in how to
00:50:15
use falsehoods to elicit confessions, a tactic that is broadly protected by the courts. The detectives who interrogated
00:50:25
Tom asserted that they were only following their training. one explained. We had been with Tom all day
00:50:33
and we were running out of things to say to him to try to get the answer. We used
00:50:38
a ruse to elicit certain information and that is perfectly legal under the law and it is perfectly legal under the
00:50:45
policies and procedures of the Fontana Police Department. According to Tom's attorney,
00:50:52
Jerry Steering, the decision to settle was based on the Court of Appeals history of tossing out police misconduct
00:51:00
lawsuits. As part of his settlement, Tom received $898,000 in damages. A statement on the Fontana City
00:51:10
website read, "The settlement in this case was a business decision which was recommended
00:51:16
by a federal court mediator to save the city further time. effort and expense. The party's written settlement
00:51:25
agreement contains no admission of wrongdoing by anyone, and Tom Perez specifically agreed to settlement on
00:51:32
these terms. Had he requested an admission of wrongdoing, the case would have never
00:51:38
settled. Tom Perez's case is an example of how lying to suspects during police interrogations can lead to false
00:51:48
statements, or worse still, false confessions. Advocates are working to have detectives retrained with newer
00:51:57
methods that will no longer allow them to lie or trick suspects into confessing.
00:52:02
As one advocate explained, the Fontana case is an extreme one, but it fundamentally begins
00:52:09
with a mistaken belief about the use of deception in the interview room. A community caretaker doesn't lie
00:52:17
or deceive the community it serves, at least not for very long without the community questioning, "Are you really
00:52:25
my caretaker?" or something else. Following Tom's ordeal, there were no indications that there was an internal
00:52:35
review within Fontana Police, and those involved faced no internal repercussions
00:52:40
or discipline. On the contrary, several detectives involved were promoted to the
00:52:46
position of sergeant, while one was named 2019 employee of the year. City officials have since claimed that
00:52:55
law enforcement leaders have developed many service enhancements to deal with quote mentally challenged individuals,
00:53:03
though they have not publicly elaborated on what those enhancements are or what they
00:53:09
entail. Tom Perez's interrogation video has been described by those who've seen it as both fascinating and disturbing.
00:53:19
Although several media publications got a hold of it and showed snippets in news
00:53:24
reports, they have since had to return it to the city of Fontana unaired as it is subject to a protective order and
00:53:31
cannot be published. Carl PZA, Tom's close friend and business partner, who had been
00:53:40
recruited by police to elicit a confession, has expressed remorse for his involvement.
00:53:46
He was led to believe that Tom had killed Thomas Senior. But even after speaking with Tom face to face, he
00:53:54
couldn't understand how the crime had allegedly occurred. It wasn't until after he
00:53:59
participated in the interrogation that Carl learned the evidence he had originally been told was overwhelming
00:54:06
was in fact circumstantial. Carl felt dubed. He wanted to go back into the interrogation room to inform Tom, but
00:54:17
wasn't permitted to talk to him again. Since the ordeal, Carl could tell that Tom was struggling to
00:54:26
cope. Carl wrote in court documents. There's sadness there. I can tell by the way Tom acts, even sometimes
00:54:35
the way he walks or stands. He's not the same. No one involved in the case has apologized to Tom or Thomas
00:54:46
Senior. Feelings from the ordeal remain raw between the pair, and they haven't reached the point where they're able to
00:54:53
openly talk to one another about what happened. Tom wrote in court documents that while it was difficult to hold
00:55:00
back, it was difficult to talk about anything because they didn't know what to do or say.
00:55:08
The father and son still lived together, though Tom remained traumatized by his experience for a long time
00:55:15
afterwards. In an exclusive interview with CNN, Tom explained that his father helped him by making sure his
00:55:23
necessities were met, which allowed him to work through his trauma. He still carries one lesson from
00:55:31
his ordeal. Don't call the cops. The pair's beloved dog, Margo, died in February 2023, leaving a permanent hole
00:55:43
in both their lives. Tom believes the reason he confessed to a murder he didn't commit
00:55:51
was because he'd been brainwashed by the interviewing detectives. "I just allowed the belief
00:55:57
of others to dominate me," he explained. "I never want to be in that kind of place again mentally. I didn't know
00:56:06
anybody could be in that kind of place. I didn't know that such a place existed. To this day, Tom feels he still
00:56:17
doesn't have a clear explanation for why he was treated so badly. But the Perez has told CNN they are grateful to still
00:56:25
have each other as they have helped each other heal. Tom's attorney, Jerry Steering, called
00:56:32
Tom's treatment the worst act of deliberate cruelty that he had seen in his 40 years of suing the
00:56:39
police. Quote, mentally torturing a false confession out of Tom Perez, concealing
00:56:46
from him that his father was alive and well, and confining him in the psych ward because they made him suicidal.
00:56:55
I never thought that it was easy, maybe even possible, to get a completely innocent person confess to something
00:57:02
like that. Jerry said that Tom's ordeal laid bare the way in which police officers
00:57:09
can force people to make false confessions, explaining, "This case shows that if the
00:57:16
police are skilled enough and they grill you hard enough, they can get anybody to
00:57:21
confess to anything. [Music] [Music]