On June 18, ESPN published a report that connected NFL free agent Mike Pennel Jr. to the death of a woman in the Dominican Republic. This week, the network retracted the article and issued a brief statement.
The article, bylined by T.J. Quinn and Juan Recio, claimed that Pennel had "an ongoing relationship" with Carli Franchesca Guzmán Roche, who disappeared in 2021 and whose body was discovered in January 2026 on Pennel's property in Puerto Plata. The original report, which has since been deleted but can be found at an archived link, cited "interviews with people close to the victim and police records."
Also mentioned in the piece were LeAndre Kemont Jefferson and Tyree Lamont Davis, two of Pennel's friends. In the original article, Pennel denied any connection to Guzmán and said he wasn't in the Dominican Republic at the time. He also added this:
Pennel told ESPN on Thursday that it was Davis who had a relationship with her, not him. Durán said Pennel, Davis and Jefferson were lifelong friends who grew up playing football together. Durán said Jefferson is living in the Dominican Republic but does not know where Davis currently lives. In his 2021 statement to police, Davis said he and Pennel had a falling out months earlier because of a dispute over a woman.
ESPN's reporters spoke with Guzmán's grandmother Paula González, and she supposedly identified Pennel when shown a photo of him. They also spoke to Ariel Durán, Pennel's attorney in the Dominican Republic, and included this somewhat confusing paragraph:
Durán said Pennel had nothing to do with Guzmán's death and that documents will exonerate him. But he also said he expects Pennel 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.
On June 21, according to its corrections page, ESPN altered the piece: "An erroneous reference that Pennel's attorney, Ariel Durán, said he expected Pennel to be charged in the case has been deleted from this story." But over a week later, the story was completely gone. In its place was the following statement, posted Wednesday morning:
On June 18, 2026, ESPN published a story about Michael Pennel Jr. and an investigation into the death of a woman in the Dominican Republic who disappeared on September 5, 2021. ESPN has determined the story contained errors and has removed it. Since the publication of the story, Pennel's representatives have provided ESPN with documentation, including travel and financial records, supporting Pennel's statements to ESPN that he was not in the Dominican Republic at the time the woman disappeared.
ESPN also included a link to Pennel's other lawyer's statement. According to that lawyer, Pennel showed records and photos which proved he could not have been in the Dominican Republic at the time of Guzmán's disappearance, because that month he had joined the Atlanta Falcons' practice squad and was rehabbing a sports injury in Colorado. That, and whatever else Pennel shared, was enough for ESPN to pull the article altogether.
An ESPN spokesperson declined further comment beyond what was in the statement.
