Cincinnati Bengals Player Linked to Missing Woman Found Dead on Property He Once Owned

Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle Michael Pennel Jr. has found himself in hot water after his name surfaced in an investigation involving a missing woman.

According to an ESPN report, Pennel was identified as a “person of interest” in connection with the death of a woman whose body was discovered on property he previously owned in the Dominican Republic. Pennel has strongly denied the allegations, calling the report “fake news,” while his attorney maintained that Pennel had no connection to the woman and did not know her.

Adam Schefter took to X to report that Pennel had been named in the case. Witnesses told police in 2021 that NFL veteran Michael Pennel Jr. had an ongoing relationship with a young woman whose body was later discovered on a property he owned when she disappeared, according to an ESPN investigation. The claims directly contradict Pennel’s assertion that he did not know the woman, Carli Franchesca Guzmán Roche.

Pennel did not respond to ESPN’s request for comment before the report was published. However, after the story went live Thursday, he contacted a reporter and firmly denied having any relationship with Guzmán. He also referred ESPN to his 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,” Pennel said.

Guzmán was reported missing on Sept. 11, 2021. Her remains were discovered more than four years later, in January 2026, when the property’s new owner uncovered them during excavation work. Interviews with individuals close to Guzmán, along with police records reviewed by ESPN, indicate that she and Pennel frequently spent time together whenever he was in the Dominican Republic, where he owned a home in the resort city of Puerto Plata until 2025.

Records reviewed by ESPN also show that multiple individuals urged investigators to look into Pennel’s connection to Guzmán during the early stages of the search. Despite those tips, there is no indication in the investigation files that authorities ever interviewed Pennel. Police did, however, visit his property alongside several of Guzmán’s relatives just days after she was reported missing.

Pennel acknowledged that he was never contacted by authorities regarding Guzmán’s disappearance. During the September 2021 search, Guzmán’s grandmother and the family’s attorney told ESPN they noticed a strong odor of decomposition in the area. According to their account, police attributed the smell to a dead animal and did not expand their search to the source of the odor, which they said appeared to be coming from Pennel’s backyard.

Related Headlines