has reported that Mike Pennel knew Carli Franchesca Guzmán Roche, the woman whose body was found in January 2026 on property he previously owned in the Dominican Republic. The new report cuts against Pennel’s earlier denial and adds a named relationship to a death investigation that had already drawn attention in April.
That question matters now because Pennel is not a private figure. He is a free-agent defensive lineman who has spent 12 years in the NFL, with 154 regular-season appearances, 27 starts, and a pair of Super Bowls with the Chiefs. ’s earlier report had described him as a person of interest, and Pennel answered by calling it fake news while his lawyer said he did not know the woman. The latest reporting changes that picture.
Carli Franchesca Guzmán Roche had been reported missing on September 11, 2021, more than four years before her body was discovered. said the remains were found when the new owner of the property was doing excavation work, which explains how a body tied to a missing-person case could sit undiscovered for so long: the ground had not been disturbed in a way that would bring it to light. The report said interviews with people close to the victim and police records reviewed by supported its conclusion that Pennel and the woman knew each other and that he frequently spent time with her when he was in the Dominican Republic.
That is the friction at the center of the case. Pennel’s side denied any connection and rejected the original report outright, but later said the records and interviews pointed the other way. Pennel and his lawyer did not respond to several messages seeking comment, leaving the newer account unanswered. What remains unsettled is not whether the story has shifted — it has — but how much of the relationship and the circumstances around the death investigation can be documented beyond the latest reporting.
Pennel’s football résumé explains why the case is now being watched far beyond the Dominican Republic. He entered the NFL undrafted in 2014 and played for the Packers, Jets, Chiefs, Falcons, Bears and Bengals. In 2025, he appeared in eight games with the Bengals and eight with the Chiefs. None of that answers the central question in the investigation, but it does show why a report linking him to a woman found on property he once owned has traveled so quickly: the name belongs to someone known on an NFL roster, and the latest account directly contradicts what he said before.
