A 74-year-old Maryland man faces manslaughter charges after Delaware State Police said he fatally shot a woman he mistook for a deer. The incident occurred Friday evening, Sept. 18, 2026, in an open field near Ellendale, Delaware, where the woman was walking with a man and two children.
Investigators stated that Walter Moorhead of Salisbury, Maryland, was hunting in a ground blind or crouched close to the ground when he fired his rifle. The victim, identified by her church as 39-year-old Santos Maria Chilel Soto of Georgetown, Delaware, was struck by the gunfire and later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Troopers arrived at the scene near South Old State Road and East Robbins Road around 7:40 p.m. following reports of the shooting. Moorhead was arrested at the site and subsequently released on a $43,000 bond. In addition to manslaughter, he is charged with possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and three counts of first-degree reckless endangerment.
Soto, originally from Guatemala, was a member of an evangelical church in Georgetown. Her family has established a fundraising campaign to cover funeral expenses and the cost of returning her body to her home country. The church held services in her honor and described her in a translated obituary as a "beloved sister in Christ."
The scale of the incident involves the death of one person and the potential imprisonment of another. According to Delaware State Police, the shooting occurred in a setting where four people—two adults and two children—were in the vicinity of the gunfire. The financial impact on the victim's family is estimated at approximately $6,500, the target amount for funeral and transportation costs, of which $4,500 had been raised by the Monday following the event.
Police are seeking additional information through Delaware Crime Stoppers. The next steps in the legal process include further investigation by the homicide unit and future court dates for Moorhead following his release on bond.