The NFL has learned of some shocking news about a 12-year veteran and two time Super Bowl champion. The story broke late Thursday night and has started to go viral on Friday. A woman’s body was found deceased, an NFL vet is at the center of it.
This is what we know.
Sheboygan police cars surround the northeast end of Meijer Friday, Aug. 29, 2025, in Sheboygan, Wis. © Gary C. Klein/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Shocking News Surfaces Regarding 12-Year NFL Vet and Dead Woman
According to a ESPN investigation, Mike Pennel claimed he didn’t know the young woman whose body was found in 2021 on a property he owned. However, witnesses told police he had a relationship with her that same year.
Prior to the publication going live he did not respond to a message seeking comment. As soon as it was published, Pennel contacted a reporter to assert that he had no relation to Carli Franchesca Guzmán Roche. He directed ESPN to an attorney in the Dominican Republic, Ariel Durán.
“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 Guzmán disappeared),” he said.
According to ESPN:
Durán said Pennel had nothing to do with Guzmán’s death and that documents will exonerate him. But he also said he expects him to be charged in the case because the body was found on his property, and that if he is charged, Durán 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.
According to interviews with people close to the victim and police records reviewed by ESPN, Pennel and Guzmán frequently spent time together when he 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.
Police documents also showed:
Guzmán’s grandmother was so insistent with police that Pennel’s property could contain clues to her whereabouts that they let her accompany them to his address.
Two American friends of his, identified as LeAndre Kemont Jefferson and Tyree Lamont Davis, were interviewed by police. Jefferson’s local address was in the same gated community as Pennel’s. Neither man could be reached for comment.
The man identified as Lamonte told an investigator that Pennel and Guzmán were friends and Pennel had last seen her in January 2021 at the airport in Santo Domingo before they departed together in a taxi.
ESPN determined that the mobile phone number Jefferson provided to police as his own was actually registered to Pennel.
He said in an April text in reference to the identification of Guzmán’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.”
While this doesn’t mean Pennel is guilty of harming a girl, however, it looks really bad to have so many essentially calling you a liar. This story is far from over and there will be more coming if/when this ever goes to trial.
Throughout his career Pennel spent time with the:
Over 12 years he appeared in 154 regular season games, and 17 playoff games.