diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index 5b4bb019..ea9765ef 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 ### Unreleased
 
 * Add `JSON::ParserError#json_path` to locate parse errors in the document as a JSONPath-style string (e.g. `$.foo[0].bar`). For duplicate key errors it points at the duplicated key itself.
+* Fix the parser to also reject lone trailing UTF-16 surrogates (`\uDCxx` with no leading partner), symmetric to the leading-surrogate case. The Java parser already rejected these; this closes the CRuby/JRuby parity gap.
 
 ### 2026-08-11 (3.0.0.rc1)
 
diff --git a/ext/json/ext/parser/parser.c b/ext/json/ext/parser/parser.c
index fc6a7bbf..5cba2feb 100644
--- a/ext/json/ext/parser/parser.c
+++ b/ext/json/ext/parser/parser.c
@@ -1041,6 +1041,9 @@ NOINLINE(static) VALUE json_string_unescape(JSON_ParserState *state, JSON_Parser
                         raise_syntax_error_at("incomplete surrogate pair at %s", state, p);
                         break;
                     }
+                } else if ((ch & 0xFC00) == 0xDC00) {
+                    raise_syntax_error_at("unpaired trailing surrogate at %s", state, p);
+                    break;
                 }
 
                 int unescape_len = convert_UTF32_to_UTF8(buffer, ch);
diff --git a/test/json/json_minefield_parser_test.rb b/test/json/json_minefield_parser_test.rb
index e6dcb54b..55580140 100644
--- a/test/json/json_minefield_parser_test.rb
+++ b/test/json/json_minefield_parser_test.rb
@@ -22,12 +22,9 @@ def define_test(name, &block)
     i_string_overlong_sequence_2_bytes
     i_string_not_in_unicode_range
     i_string_lone_utf8_continuation_byte
-    i_string_lone_second_surrogate
     i_string_iso_latin_1
     i_string_invalid_utf-8
-    i_string_incomplete_surrogate_pair
     i_string_UTF-8_invalid_sequence
-    i_object_key_lone_2nd_surrogate
   )
 
   COMMENT_TESTS = %w(
@@ -56,6 +53,9 @@ def define_test(name, &block)
     i_string_utf16BE_no_BOM
     i_string_utf16LE_no_BOM
     i_structure_UTF-8_BOM_empty_object
+    i_string_lone_second_surrogate
+    i_string_incomplete_surrogate_pair
+    i_object_key_lone_2nd_surrogate
   )
 
   if RUBY_ENGINE == 'jruby'
diff --git a/test/json/json_parser_test.rb b/test/json/json_parser_test.rb
index 84839585..3e884429 100644
--- a/test/json/json_parser_test.rb
+++ b/test/json/json_parser_test.rb
@@ -403,6 +403,15 @@ def test_invalid_surogates
     assert_raise(JSON::ParserError) { parse('"\\uD800_________________"') }
     assert_raise(JSON::ParserError) { parse('"\\uD800\\u0041"') }
     assert_raise(JSON::ParserError) { parse('"\\uD800\\u004') }
+    # Lone trailing surrogate (issue #1069): parser previously returned an
+    # invalid-UTF-8 String instead of raising. Symmetric to the leading cases
+    # above.
+    assert_raise(JSON::ParserError) { parse('"\\uDC00"') }
+    assert_raise(JSON::ParserError) { parse('"\\uDC00_________________"') }
+    assert_raise(JSON::ParserError) { parse('"\\uDC00\\uD800"') }
+    # Valid pair still parses to the astral codepoint U+10000.
+    assert_predicate JSON.parse('"\\uD800\\uDC00"'), :valid_encoding?
+    assert_equal "\u{10000}", JSON.parse('"\\uD800\\uDC00"')
   end
 
   def test_parse_big_integers