ESPN has now completely deleted its story claiming that NFL player Mike Pennel is a suspect in a murder case in the Dominican Republic.
The ESPN article centers on the shocking story of the body of a woman named Carli Franchesca Guzmán Roche having been discovered on property that Pennel once owned in the Dominican Republic. Guzman had disappeared in 2021, and at the time, she was linked to Pennel and one of his Dominican acquaintances. But after an initial investigation, Dominican authorities ruled the NFL player out as a suspect.
However, on June 18, ESPN’s T.J. Quinn and Juan Recio posted a story claiming that Pennel’s innocence may now be in question and that he seems to be back under suspicion in the woman’s death. But now that the story has been fully deleted, readers will find a disclaimer stating that the story “contained errors and has been removed.”
In its June 18 story, ESPN hinted that there are doubts about Pennel’s whereabouts when the woman disappeared in 2021 and questions about his actual relationship with her. It was hinted that Pennel had flings with her whenever he visited the Dominican Republic, and that he was also involved with a man living nearby who may have had relations with the woman.
But according to the ESPN update, Pennel’s legal team had provided the sports network with records proving he was nowhere near the island nation when the woman disappeared more than five years ago.
“Pennel’s representatives have provided ESPN with documentation, including travel and financial records, supporting Pennel’s statements to ESPN that he was not in the Dominican Republic at the time the woman disappeared,” the disclaimer reads.
According to Awful Announcing, Pennel had proved he was in the USA at the time, writing, “Attorney Brian Wainger, in a separate statement, said passport records, banking records, and geotagged photographs place Pennel in Denver at the time, receiving treatment for a sports injury before signing with the Atlanta Falcons that September.”
The report went on to add that, “Wainger also said Pennel’s own surveillance system had captured people trespassing on the property the night Guzmán Roche went missing, footage he says he turned over to Dominican authorities who didn’t know it existed.”
In the end, it seems that ESPN’s June 18 story connected dots that didn’t exist and made wild assumptions that haven’t been borne out. While Dominican authorities are still investigating the woman’s death as a murder, it does not appear that Mike Pennel is a suspect in her death.
Pennel, 35, was an undrafted player in 2014 and first signed with the Green Bay Packers. But he went on to spend two years or less with a slew of other teams and is currently an unsigned free agent. After the Packers, he played with the Jets, Patriots, Chiefs, Bears, Bengals, and more.
Over his 12-year career, he earned 154 regular-season appearances and 27 starts. He also won two Super Bowls as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: Facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston, or at X/Twitter @WTHuston