Michael Pennel Jr., an NFL veteran defensive tackle who played last season for the Chiefs, is considered a person of interest in the investigation of the body of a missing woman in the Dominican Republic, according to a report from ESPN.
The woman, missing since 2021, was discovered earlier this year on a property Pennel formerly owned.
Two Dominican sources told ESPN that Pennel is a person of interest.
Pennel’s attorney told the outlet that Pennel did not know the woman and was not in the country when she disappeared. Pennel, who played two seasons (2017, ’18) with the Jets, told ESPN that the story is “fake news.”
“This isn’t a story. I’m not legally involved,” Pennel told ESPN in a text. “This is fake news being reported. I’d advise you to speak with my agent/lawyer … before writing a false story. Damaging my reputation.”
The 34-year-old Pennel is currently a free agent. His Dominican attorney, Alexander Valbuena, told ESPN that Pennel asked his lawyers “to offer his full cooperation to the Dominican authorities and help clarify the situation.”
The woman, Carli Franchesca Guzman Roche, was declared missing on Sept. 13, 2021. She was 22. She disappeared after moving to the town of Sosua, where Pennel had a home in a gated community.
According to ESPN, Pennel sold his home last year, and the body was discovered while a worker was digging a trench in January and required a DNA sample from Guzman’s son to identify. The case is being investigated as a homicide.
It is unclear, based on ESPN’s reporting, if there are other persons of interest.
“It is also important to clarify that we are already in communication with the authorities to clarify the situation, as Mr. [Pennel’s] primary concern and interest has been to get to the bottom of this since he learned of it,” Valbuena told ESPN.
Pennel had been suspended for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy three times, and was sued in 2024 by the widow of Dwayne Haskins, who accused him of a $275,000 fraud related to a dog breeding business he operated in the Dominican.
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