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Former Green Bay Packers defensive lineman Mike Pennel, who has also played with the New York Jets, New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs, Chicago Bears, Atlanta Falcons and Cincinnati Bengals, is now being described as a “person of interest” in the possible homicide of a missing woman, according to authorities in the Dominican Republic, per ESPN. In January of 2026, the body of Carli Franchesca Guzmán Roche was discovered on property that was owned by Pennel up until 2025. Guzmán went missing in September of 2021, but her body was not found until this past January, when an excavation crew uncovered her.
Here’s what ESPN had to say about Pennel’s connection to Guzmán:
Records also show that several people told police early in the 2021 search that Pennel had connections with Guzmán 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.
Pennel acknowledged he was never contacted by authorities about Guzmán’s disappearance in 2021.
During that September 2021 visit to Pennel’s neighborhood, Guzmán’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.
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Prosecutors say they are pursuing the case as a homicide, although no cause of death has been released.
To ESPN, Pennel said the following: “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.” Later in the article, Pennel states that it was Lamont Davis, not Pennel, who had a relationship with Guzmán. In 2021, Davis told police that “he and Pennel had a falling out months earlier because of a dispute over a woman.”
The grandmother of Guzmán claims that her granddaughter was visiting Pennel, specifically, when she went missing, though.
In September 2021, González said, Guzmán 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, González said. By late the next day, no one had heard from her, and the family became concerned. González said she called a friend of her granddaughter, who according to investigation records told police she wasn’t with Guzmán but believed Guzmán had been with Pennel in recent days. González said she then called police, telling whoever answered the phone that her granddaughter was missing.
Currently, Pennel isn’t charged with a crime, but as ESPN stated, this could change on a future date.
