ELLENDALE, Del. - Newly obtained court documents are providing more details about the moments leading up to a fatal shooting in an Ellendale field that left a Georgetown woman dead and a Salisbury man facing manslaughter and other felony charges.
Delaware State Police say on Sept. 18 around 7:40 p.m., troopers responded to an open field near South Old State Road, just north of East Robbins Road, after a woman was reportedly shot. Troopers provided life-saving measures before the victim was taken to Bayhealth Medical Center in Milford. Sadly, the woman did not survive.
The victim was identified by police as 39-year-old Santos Maria Chilel Soto of Georgetown. Walter Moorhead, 74, of Salisbury, was arrested in connection with her death.
According to a probable-cause affidavit obtained by WBOC, Chilel Soto was walking through the field with her boyfriend and two children, ages 10 and 7, when the shooting occurred. The boyfriend told investigators the group was walking closely together when he heard an "explosion" and saw Chilel Soto fall to the ground. He told police he found her unresponsive and bleeding from the front of her upper torso and applied pressure to the wound while calling 911.
The affidavit says that before police and emergency crews arrived, the man saw an older man carrying a flashlight approach the group while apparently searching for a deer he had just shot.
Investigators say Moorhead told police he had been hunting deer from a ground blind and was using a scoped rifle. According to the affidavit, Moorhead said he was positioned inside the blind when he fired at what he believed was a doe.
According to investigators, Moorhead then went toward the area where he had fired and found an injured woman surrounded by a man and two children. The affidavit says Moorhead acknowledged to investigators that her injury was the result of him firing his rifle.
Police then recovered a rifle equipped with a scope from inside the ground blind, according to the affidavit.
Moorhead was charged with manslaughter, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and three counts of first-degree reckless endangering. He was released after posting a $43,000 cash bond, according to Delaware State Police.
Chilel Soto's family is currently raising funds to cover funeral services and the cost of transporting her body to be laid to rest in Guatemala.
