SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — NFL veteran\u00a0Michael Pennel Jr.\u00a0had an ongoing relationship with a young woman whose body was found on a property he owned when she went missing, an ESPN investigation found, contradicting Pennel’s claim that he did not know her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pennel did not respond to a message seeking comment before this story was published. After it was published Thursday afternoon, however, Pennel called a reporter to insist he had no relationship with Carli Franchesca Guzm\u00e1n Roche, whose body was discovered in January 2026. He directed ESPN to an attorney in the Dominican Republic, Ariel Dur\u00e1n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“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 Guzm\u00e1n disappeared),” Pennel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dur\u00e1n said Pennel had nothing to do with Guzm\u00e1n’s death and that documents will exonerate him. But he also said he expects Pennel to be charged in the case because the body was found on his property, and that if he is charged, Dur\u00e1n might not represent him because the two are currently in a dispute over money. He did not say what he expected Pennel to be charged with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to interviews with people close to the victim and police records reviewed by ESPN, Pennel and Guzm\u00e1n frequently spent time together when Pennel was in the Dominican Republic, where he owned a property in the resort area of Puerto Plata until 2025. Her family reported her missing on Sept. 11, 2021, but her body was not found until January 2026, when the new owner was doing excavation work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Records also show that several people told police early in the 2021 search that Pennel had connections with Guzm\u00e1n worth investigating. But investigation records show no indication that police interviewed him, despite having visited his property with several of her family members days after she was reported missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pennel acknowledged he was never contacted by authorities about Guzm\u00e1n’s disappearance in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During that September 2021 visit to Pennel’s neighborhood, Guzm\u00e1n’s grandmother and a family attorney told ESPN, a strong odor of decay was obvious, but police told the family the smell probably was from a dead animal, and they did not expand their search to the place from where the smell was emanating — Pennel’s backyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dur\u00e1n told ESPN on Thursday that it was Pennel’s two associates, one of whom was staying at the villa at the time of Guzm\u00e1n’s disappearance, who told police they had sprayed the property for pests and that’s what probably caused the smell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Guzm\u00e1n’s body was identified last March. Dominican officials reopened the case at that point and told ESPN that Pennel is a “person of interest” in her death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prosecutors say they are pursuing the case as a homicide, although no cause of death has been released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pennel said in an April text in reference to the identification of Guzm\u00e1n’s body: “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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pennel signed with the\u00a0Atlanta Falcons\u00a0on Sept. 15, 2021. The police search got underway when Guzm\u00e1n was officially declared missing on Sept. 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police documents also showed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pennel told ESPN on Thursday that it was Davis who had a relationship with her, not him. Dur\u00e1n said Pennel, Davis and Jefferson were lifelong friends who grew up playing football together. Dur\u00e1n said Jefferson is living in the Dominican Republic but does not know where Davis currently lives. In his 2021 statement to police, Davis said he and Pennel had a falling out months earlier because of a dispute over a woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Records show that Jefferson was arrested for trying to smuggle two kilograms of cocaine into the United States in 2020, but in January 2026, the case was dropped at the request of then-U.S. Dept. Attorney General and current acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to media reports in the Dominican Republic, Pennel had a previous encounter with Dominican law enforcement. Reports said that Pennel and two different American men, Torrey Johnson and Jabrion Burnside, were arrested for possessing a 9 mm pistol in May 2021. The two men could not be reached, and law enforcement officials would not release an arrest report, saying it was confidential under Dominican law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dur\u00e1n told ESPN that the gun belonged to one of the other men, not Pennel. A court document reviewed by ESPN shows that Pennel was never formally charged in the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Multiple sources told ESPN that the case has been deeply sensitive within the Dominican Republic, which relies on foreign tourists and has worked in recent years to promote an image as a safe vacationing site and shed a reputation for political and law enforcement corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sitting in her home with two ESPN reporters, Guzm\u00e1n’s grandmother, Paula Gonz\u00e1lez, said Guzm\u00e1n used to talk about Pennel, usually referring to him as “el futbolista,” or “the football player,” and that when he would come to the island, he usually sent a taxi for her to come spend time with him. Gonz\u00e1lez said she once saw Guzm\u00e1n talking to Pennel over videoconference, and that Gonz\u00e1lez had seen him in person. Shown a picture of Pennel, Gonz\u00e1lez said, “Yes — no doubt. Strongly, no doubt” that he was the person her granddaughter was seeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pennel denied ever speaking to Guzm\u00e1n on a video call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I was never on FaceTime or [met] any of her family.” In 2021, “the grandmother [didn’t] even know my name to tell police. Because I don’t know her,” he said via text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In September 2021, Gonz\u00e1lez said, Guzm\u00e1n told her she was going back north to be with “her athlete friend.” She said her granddaughter called her Sunday, Sept. 5, and said she was still with Pennel. She said she was fine but that she wasn’t feeling well and would come back home Monday morning, Gonz\u00e1lez said. By late the next day, no one had heard from her, and the family became concerned. Gonz\u00e1lez said she called a friend of her granddaughter, who according to investigation records told police she wasn’t with Guzm\u00e1n but believed Guzm\u00e1n had been with Pennel in recent days. Gonz\u00e1lez said she then called police, telling whoever answered the phone that her granddaughter was missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“He said, ‘Look, you should come here, because this smells fishy. Here in Puerto Plata … this is a cemetery. Here is where young girls disappear,'” Gonz\u00e1lez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ESPN was able to review a document from the Dominican Investigative Court of the Judicial District of Puerto Plata known as a “certification” that states that “there is not any Criminal Lawsuit filed against MR. MICHAEL MAURICE PENNEL JR” as of May 25, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such a letter is given after being requested by one of the parties. It means the person has not been charged as of a certain date, but does not rule out that the person could be under investigation or face future charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pennel, who is currently a free agent, said he shared that document with the NFL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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