Is there a new episode of Dateline this week (October 2, 2025)? Explained

Dateline has a new episode this week. Oxygen lists The Perfect Life in two parts on Thursday, October 2, at 3 am and 4 am ET. It is a fresh air for Oxygen that uses the two-hour Dateline NBC report, split into back-to-back hours.

The case centers on Jennifer Ramsaran, a New York mother of three whose 2012 disappearance led to a homicide case, a 2014 conviction, a 2022 order granting a new trial, and a 2023 plea to manslaughter. The Oxygen airing follows that arc and includes an interview with her husband, Remy Ramsaran, first aired in 2024, where he addresses the case history and his claims.

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New this week: Dateline on Oxygen

Oxygen lists both hours as Dateline New, which reflects the network’s fresh airing of an earlier two-hour Dateline report cut into two episodes. The story follows the search for Jennifer, the recovery of her van and phone, and the discovery of her body two months later near Pharsalia in Chenango County. It sets up the timeline that prosecutors and the defense debated for years.

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The case at the center

Jennifer was reported missing on December 11, 2012. Her phone was later found along a roadway, and her red van turned up in a nearby lot. Weeks after the search began, her body was located off a rural road. A medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. Investigators built a timeline from phone activity, travel routes, and statements gathered during the missing-person phase.

Focus soon shifted to Remy Ramsaran. Detectives examined his movements that day, his media comments, and what they called gaps in his running route account. They also looked at his personal life, including an affair with a friend of Jennifer’s, a detail presented in court by the state. Defense lawyers challenged the motive and timeline and argued the case was circumstantial.

A Chenango County jury found Remy guilty of second-degree murder in 2014. (Image via Pexels)

A Chenango County jury found Remy guilty of second-degree murder in 2014. Years later, a judge granted a new trial, finding his former attorney’s trial work inadequate and calling the conduct egregious, according to NBC News. The ruling cited basic forensic research done mid-trial by the defense and the lack of expert witnesses.

Facing a retrial, Remy entered a plea to first-degree manslaughter in October 2023 and received a 22-year sentence, as reported by NBC News. The plea allowed the case to resolve without a new jury verdict while leaving his long-standing claims of innocence on the record from earlier interviews.

The two-hour Dateline report revisits those turns with the original investigators, attorneys, and family members. Viewers see how early decisions shaped the available evidence, why the courtroom outcome changed years later, and how the manslaughter plea closed the criminal case while leaving debate over motive and the sequence of events.

Dateline: The Perfect Life investigation scene (Image via Youtube/@DatelineNBC)

The broadcast also revisits key search moments, including the phone recovery, the van location, and the spot where Jennifer was found. Those details frame the question the state pressed at trial and the defense worked to rebut: where the violence happened and how the day unfolded.

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Inside the Dateline episode

The Perfect Life pairs 2024 sit-downs with past on-camera material to walk through the case from the first 911 call to the plea. Producers lay out the state’s theory, the defense answers, and the later court order that set aside the 2014 verdict.

According to NBC News, the judge who granted the new trial cited the defense lawyer’s lack of preparation, which the episode addresses through court filings and interviews.

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Beyond the oxygen airing on October 2nd, Dateline NBC: The Perfect Life streams on Peacock Premium, Peacock Premium Plus, fuboTV, and NBC, and with ads on The Roku Channel. The episode is also available for free on Spectrum On Demand. Availability can vary by market and plan.

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