Two-time Super Bowl champion Mike Pennel reportedly had an ongoing relationship with the young woman whose dead body was later found on a property he owned in the Dominican Republic.
Back in April, the former Kansas City Chiefs star was named a person of interest in the death of missing woman Carli Franchesca Guzman Roche.
Guzman had been missing since 2021 but her body was only found earlier this year on a property that was owned by Pennel at the time she vanished.
Pennel’s attorney previously told ESPN he didn’t know the woman and was not in the Dominican Republic when she went missing. He called it ‘fake news’.
But now, a new investigation by ESPN has led to claims that Pennel and Guzman did have an ongoing relationship and they would frequently spend time together when the NFL star was on the island.
Records also allegedly show that locals urged police to investigate Pennel’s connection to Guzman. But it’s believed police never interviewed him at the time, despite visiting his property with her family members.
Ex-Chiefs star Mike Pennel reportedly had a relationship with a woman whose body was found on a property he used to own in the Dominican Republic
During the visit to Pennel’s neighborhood in September 2021, Guzman’s grandmother and a family attorney allege a strong odor of decay was obvious and it was emanating from Pennel’s backyard.
However, they claim police told them the stench was likely from a dead animal, and they did not bother to check the backyard.
In a text to ESPN, Pennel furiously denied he had any relationship with Guzman.
He wrote: ‘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).’
Pennel’s attorney in the Dominican Republic, Ariel Duran, has also told ESPN that two associates of the NFL star told cops they had just sprayed the property for pests and blamed that for the smell.
It’s also claimed that two American friends of Pennel, LeAndre Kemont Jefferson and Davis Tyree Lamonte (also known as Tyree Lamont Davis), were interviewed by police. Pennel told ESPN it was Davis who had a relationship with Guzman.
While speaking to cops in 2021, Davis said he and Pennel had recently fallen out due to a dispute over a woman.
Duran has insisted again that his client had nothing to do with Guzman’s death but added he expects the NFL star to be charged because her body was discovered on his property.
The attorney added that he and Pennel are currently involved in a dispute over money.
Pennel, who won two Super Bowls with the Chiefs, continues to deny he knew the woman at all
Guzman was 22 when she was declared missing on September 13, 2021. She had just moved to the coastal town of Sosua, where Pennel had a house in a luxurious gated community.
ESPN reported that Pennel sold that home in 2025 and the woman’s body was only found in January 2026 while a worker was digging a trench.
Guzman’s body could only be identified when officials matched her DNA to her eight-year-old son. A cause of death has not been announced but police are treating it as a homicide.
At the time of her disappearance, Pennel was without an NFL team after being released by the Chicago Bears in August 2021. He then signed with the Atlanta Falcons on September 15, two days after Guzman was declared missing.
Pennel deleted his Instagram back in April after accounts started to connect him to Guzman’s death on social media but it has since been reactivated.
He won two Super Bowls with the Chiefs, having had three spells in Kansas City between 2019-2020, 2023-2024 and in 2025.
The 34-year-old defensive tackle has also played for the Green Bay Packers, New York Jets and, most recently, the Cincinnati Bengals in his long career.
