An ESPN investigation has uncovered documents and witnesses that contradict NFL defensive tackle Mike Pennel's repeated public claims that he did not know the woman whose body was discovered buried on property he formerly owned in the Dominican Republic. Dominican authorities have since designated Pennel a "person of interest" in the case, a sharp reversal from earlier in the investigation, when they had largely ruled him out as a suspect.
The body belonged to Carli Franchesca Guzmán Roche, a 22-year-old woman who was declared missing on September 13, 2021, after her family had not heard from her for eight days. Her remains were found in January when a worker digging a trench on the property, located in a gated community in Sosúa, unearthed them during excavation work, Fox News reported. Pennel had sold the home the previous year, before the discovery.
Identifying the remains required a DNA sample from the victim's son, the New York Post reported. The case is now being investigated as a homicide.
Pennel, 35, has flatly denied any connection to Guzmán Roche. In a statement to ESPN, he said:
"I don't understand any of this. I don't know who you're talking to, who's saying this, I don't know this woman. I wasn't in the country (when Guzmán disappeared)."
In a separate text message to ESPN, Pennel was more combative: "This isn't a story. I'm not legally involved. This is fake news being reported. I'd advise you to speak with my agent/lawyer... before writing a false story. Damaging my reputation."
But the ESPN investigation highlighted documents and witnesses that tell a different story. Tyree Lamont Davis, Pennel's former neighbor in the Dominican Republic, told police back in 2021, when Guzmán Roche was first reported missing, that Pennel knew the woman. Davis said he last saw the victim with Pennel at the airport in Santo Domingo in January of that period.
The victim's grandmother provided a more detailed account to police. She told investigators that whenever Pennel came to the island, he would send a taxi to her home to pick up the young woman. She said Pennel and her granddaughter spent a significant amount of time together during his visits. She also told police she suspected Pennel had something to do with the disappearance.
Pennel offered his own counter-narrative. He told police that he and Davis had a falling out before Guzmán Roche went missing, and that it was Davis, not Pennel, who had a relationship with the victim. The ESPN investigation, citing its documents and witnesses, concluded otherwise.
Dominican Republic authorities had initially investigated and largely cleared Pennel as a suspect. The discovery of the body on his former property changed that calculus. Authorities reopened the case and formally designated Pennel a person of interest.
Pennel's Dominican attorney, Ariel Durán, offered a mixed message. On one hand, Durán stated that documents would prove Pennel had no part in the woman's death. On the other, he said he expects Pennel to be charged, precisely because Pennel owned the property at the time the body was buried there.
That contradiction is worth pausing on. Pennel's own lawyer simultaneously claims his client is innocent and anticipates formal charges. The situation is further complicated by Durán's disclosure that he is in a fee dispute with Pennel over unpaid legal bills and may not continue representing him.
A separate Dominican attorney for Pennel, identified as Alexander Valbuena in the New York Post's reporting, struck a more cooperative tone, stating that Pennel's "primary concern and interest has been to get to the bottom of this since he learned of it" and that they were in communication with authorities.
Whether Pennel currently has consistent, stable legal representation in the Dominican Republic remains an open question. The gap between Durán's pessimistic forecast and Valbuena's reassuring statement suggests a legal team that is either divided or in transition, neither of which inspires confidence for a man facing a potential homicide charge in a foreign jurisdiction.
Pennel entered the NFL in 2014 as an undrafted free agent, first signing with the Green Bay Packers. Over a 12-year career, he bounced through a string of teams, the New York Jets, New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs, Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals, and others. He logged 154 regular-season appearances and 27 starts.
His most notable accomplishment: two Super Bowl rings, both won as a member of the Chiefs. He is currently an unsigned free agent. Given the trajectory of this investigation, the prospect of another NFL contract seems remote.
Cases like this, where human remains are discovered on a property long after a disappearance, present enormous forensic and legal challenges. Identification alone can take months. Establishing a timeline for burial, cause of death, and the chain of property ownership adds layers of complexity, especially across international borders.
Several critical questions hang over this case. Dominican authorities have not publicly disclosed a cause or manner of death for Guzmán Roche. No formal charges have been filed against Pennel as of the latest reporting. The specific documents ESPN obtained, and what exactly they show, have not been described in detail beyond the network's assertion that they contradict Pennel's denials.
Pennel has not been arrested. He remains in the United States as an unsigned free agent. The Dominican Republic's legal process will determine whether the "person of interest" designation escalates into something more.
What is clear is the gap between Pennel's public statements and the accounts of the people closest to the victim. A grandmother says he sent taxis to pick up her granddaughter. A neighbor says he saw the two together at the airport. And the body turned up on Pennel's property.
Pennel calls it all "fake news." The witnesses, the documents, and the investigators appear to disagree. The facts will either vindicate him or they won't, but dismissing them as fabrication is not the same as answering them.
