A new report finds that despite his claims of not knowing her, NFL player Mike Pennel did know the woman who was found dead on his property in the Dominican Republic.
The woman, whose name was Carli Franchesca Guzmán Roche, was found dead back in January on property Pennel once owned in the Dominican Republic. The victim’s family had reported the woman missing in September of 2021, but her body was not found until this year, when the new owner of the property started doing excavation work. Pennel told police and the media at the time that he did not know the woman and any claims he did know her were “fake news,” according to ESPN.
“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),” Pennel told the media after Roche’s body was discovered, ESPN reported.
The player’s Dominican attorney, Ariel Durán, added that documents will prove that Pennel had no part in the woman’s death; however, he added that he expects the player to be charged in the death because Pennel owned the property when the woman’s body was buried there. The attorney also noted that he is in a dispute with Pennel over unpaid fees, so he may not be representing him in the case.
Despite Pennel’s public claim that he did not know the dead woman, ESPN has highlighted documents and witnesses that say otherwise.
For instance, Pennel’s former neighbor, Tyree Lamont Davis, told police in 2021 that Pennel knew the then-missing woman and last saw the victim with Pennel at the airport in Santo Domingo in January.
Pennl, though, told police that he and Davis had a falling out prior to the woman’s disappearance and that it was Davis, not he, who had a relationship with the victim.
Still, the victim’s grandmother told police that when Pennel came to the island, he would send a taxi to her home to pick up the girl, and that they spent a lot of time together while he was in the country. She also said she suspected that Pennel had something to do with the victim’s disappearance.
Authorities in the Dominican Republic have since reopened the case and designated Pennel as a “person of interest,” despite having largely ruled him out as a suspect in the previous investigation.
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.
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