ESPN retracts story linking former Bears DT Mike Pennel to Dominican woman’s death

An ESPN story published June 18 that explored the connection between former Bears defensive tackle Mike Pennel and the death of a Dominican woman contained errors, the website wrote Wednesday, and has since been deleted.

In a remarkable post explaining the retraction, ESPN wrote that Pennel’s representatives provided the website 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.”

In a statement on behalf of Pennel, lawyer Brian Wainger said that the player’s records — including his passport, banking documents, photographs and geotracking locations — confirmed that Pennel was not in the Dominican Republic in September 2021, when Carli Franchesca Guzman Roche disappeared. He was in Denver after being cut by the Bears and before being signed by the Falcons on Sept. 15, 2021.

The Bears cut Pennel on Aug. 31, 2021. They re-signed him in 2022 and he played in every game.

Roche, 22, was declared missing Sept. 13, 2021. Waigner said Pennel’s video surveillance system captured people trespassing on his Dominican property the night of her death and he shared the video with police, who did not know it existed.

ESPN’s June story cited unnamed sources who said Pennel knew Roche. Wainger said he did not. Pennel told ESPN reporters in April — the first story the website wrote about the case — that he was not legally involved.

“I’d advise you to speak with my agent/lawyer … before writing a false story damaging my reputation,” he texted ESPN reporters for their April story.

Pennel, 35, split time between the Chiefs and Bengals last year. Wainger said Pennel “is relieved to have all this behind him and is excited to resume his football career.”