reported that Michael Pennel Jr. has been deemed a person of interest in the potential homicide of a woman in the Dominican Republic. The body of Carli Franchesca Guzman Roche was found in January at a property that was once owned by Mike Pennel, after a worker digging a trench made the discovery.
Guzman was declared missing on Sept. 13, 2021, after she had not been heard from for eight days. The property sits in a gated community in Sosúa, on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic, and Pennel sold it last year.
Pennel denied any involvement in a text message to. “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,” he wrote.
The report lands while the 34-year-old is still active in football. Pennel played for the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cincinnati Bengals this past season, and his run with Kansas City was his third with the team. He has also played for the New York Jets and the Atlanta Falcons, and he was on the practice squad for the New England Patriots and the Chicago Bears.
His path to that career was long. Pennel went undrafted in 2014, then turned an opportunity from the Green Bay Packers into a 12-year career with five teams. He also has two Super Bowl titles, and has been suspended by the NFL three times for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy, including twice in 2016.
The homicide inquiry adds another legal cloud around Pennel. He was sued in 2024 by Dwayne Haskins’ widow, who accused him of defrauding her of $275,000 in a dog-breeding business out of the Dominican Republic. said the investigation detail came from anonymous sources close to the case.
For now, the question is not whether Pennel’s name will stay in the headlines. It is whether investigators in the Dominican Republic will tie him to a case that began with a missing-person report in 2021 and resurfaced only after a trench was dug at a property he once owned.
