ESPN’s T.J. Quinn and Juan Recio report that free agent DT Mike Pennel is a “person of interest” in a homicide investigation in the Dominican Republic.
Carli Franchesca Guzmán Roche was reported missing on September 11, 2021. Her body was found in January 2026, on a property formerly owned by Pennel at the time she went missing, when the new owner was doing excavation work. In April, Pennel told ESPN, via a statement through his lawyer, “that he did not know, nor had any connection to, the person reported as having been found dead.” However, today’s ESPN report states that Pennel and Guzmán “had an ongoing relationship” and the two “frequently spent time together when Pennel was in the Dominican Republic.” Dominican officials have reopened the case and are “pursuing the case as a homicide, although no cause of death has been released.”
