Following nearly five years of agonizing uncertainty for the family, the Public Ministry and the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (Inacif) have confirmed that skeletal remains discovered in a Sosúa villa belong to 22-year old Carli Franchesca Guzmán Roche. The missing person case has now been officially reclassified as a homicide.
Her grandmother, Paulina Gonzalez had filed a report of missing person with the Sosua police on 13 September 2021 when she was not able to contact her grand daughter since 5 September, the day the woman registered into the hotel. Guzman Roche had traveled to Sosua from her hometown in the municipality of Bani, in southcentral Peravia province.
At the time, the management of the hotel located at Calle Alejo Martinez in El Batey, Sosua had reported the woman had registered on 5 September in room #33 of the hotel. She did not check out.
The family has called for an investigation into a US citizen who was reportedly linked to the property at the time of the disappearance and with whom the victim allegedly had a relationship.
Discovery and forensic identification
The discovery of the body occurred by chance in January 2026, when a gardener performing routine maintenance at a private villa in the complex stumbled upon human remains while digging a trench.
According to the official statement from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), identification was finalized on 21 April 2026 after Inacif conducted rigorous DNA cross-referencing using samples from the victim’s young son. The remains had been held under forensic custody for four months to ensure statistical and biological certainty. The PGR press release did not establish the probable causes of the death.
The villa recently changed ownership, which led to the landscaping work that finally uncovered the corpse.
Read more in Spanish:
Attorney General Office
El Nacional
Diario Libre
Hoy
CDN
23 April 2026