Santos Maria Chilel Soto’s relatives and supporters are seeking answers as the accused hunter’s case moves to Superior Court.
ELLENDALE, Del. — Santos Maria Chilel Soto had gone out for a walk with family on a September evening when a rifle shot crossed an open Delaware field and ended the life of the 39-year-old mother of five, leaving relatives to mourn her death while asking how a hunter could have mistaken a person for a deer.
To her family, the case is not only about the criminal charges filed against Walter Moorhead, a 74-year-old hunter from Salisbury, Maryland. It is also about the life that disappeared from their household on Sept. 18. Chilel Soto was originally from Guatemala and lived in Georgetown, Delaware. Her sister told WHYY that she worked cleaning homes and was known by many people in the area. Community members later joined the family outside a Georgetown courthouse, carrying signs supporting Chilel Soto as Moorhead’s manslaughter case reached its first scheduled court stage.
Her partner, Minivaldo Velásquez, described the outing to WHYY as an ordinary family evening. After dinner, the family decided to walk, and they went to a harvested field near South Old State Road in the Ellendale area. Velásquez said people commonly walked there and described Chilel Soto as wearing a yellow blouse. Police records say she was moving through the field with a man and two children when the shooting occurred. Authorities have not suggested that Chilel Soto or the people walking with her knew a hunter was preparing to fire toward their location.
The walk ended when a rifle discharged from elsewhere in the field. According to a Delaware State Police probable-cause affidavit described by several news organizations, Velásquez told investigators that the group was close together when he heard what sounded like an explosion. Chilel Soto fell. He noticed that she had been wounded and tried to stop the bleeding while calling 911. Police said troopers were dispatched at about 7:40 p.m., administered lifesaving care and arranged for Chilel Soto to be taken to a hospital. She was pronounced dead after arriving there.
Investigators say the person who fired was Moorhead, who had been hunting deer from a ground blind. Police said he believed he saw a deer and fired his rifle, striking Chilel Soto instead. Court documents add that Moorhead told investigators he had been looking through a rifle scope at what he thought was a doe. According to those records, he said the target moved and he repositioned himself and his firearm before shooting. He then approached the area where he believed the deer had fallen and encountered Chilel Soto and the people with her.
That account became the foundation of a criminal investigation rather than being treated only as a hunting mishap. Troopers contacted Moorhead at the scene, determined that he had fired the shot and took him into custody. Delaware State Police charged him with manslaughter, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and three counts of first-degree reckless endangering. He was arraigned and later released after posting $43,000 cash bond. The allegations have not been proven in court, and Moorhead is entitled to the presumption of innocence as the case proceeds.
The family’s grief soon became public. Spotlight Delaware reported that Chilel Soto left five children, including an adult son in Guatemala, and that relatives were struggling through the days immediately after her death. Family members and community supporters called for a detailed investigation and questioned the explanation that she had been mistaken for a deer. Those statements reflected the family’s position and should not be confused with a court finding. Investigators, not relatives or supporters, will determine what evidence can be presented in the criminal case, and a judge or jury would ultimately decide guilt if the case reaches trial.
The shooting also raised questions about why a hunter was using a rifle in September, weeks before Delaware’s regular general firearm deer season. The answer proved more complicated than the ordinary hunting calendar. Police later said Moorhead was hunting under an active crop-damage permit. Delaware operates programs that allow qualifying farmers to use additional antlerless deer harvests to reduce crop losses, and some levels authorize hunting outside the ordinary firearm-season dates. The programs are intended to help agricultural operations manage deer populations on specific properties. That permit status does not settle whether Moorhead acted lawfully when he fired the shot at issue in the criminal case.
Timing became another point of public discussion. State police said officers responded at approximately 7:40 p.m., and court records placed the reported incident within minutes of that time. Velásquez gave WHYY an earlier time for when the family arrived to begin its walk. News reports also noted that sunset occurred around 7:05 p.m. Authorities have not publicly resolved every difference in the accounts or said whether the timing will play a major role in court. The core allegation has remained consistent: police say Moorhead fired at what he believed was a deer and struck Chilel Soto.
By Sept. 25, the courthouse had become another gathering place for people supporting the family. Dozens of people were reported outside or around the Georgetown courthouse when Moorhead was scheduled for a preliminary hearing. The hearing did not go forward. His attorney waived the proceeding, allowing the felony case to continue toward Superior Court without prosecutors first presenting evidence at that stage. Defense attorney Michael Abram told the Delaware News Journal that the defense believed the preliminary hearing would become a “circus.” The decision does not amount to an admission of guilt.
For Chilel Soto’s supporters, the courthouse gathering provided a way to keep attention on the person at the center of the case rather than only on the man accused of firing the rifle. Her sister, Yolin Chilel Soto, told WHYY that her sister knew many people and was deeply valued by those around her. That portrait stands apart from the language of police releases, which initially identified the victim only by age and hometown while relatives were notified. Once her name became public, coverage increasingly described a working mother, an immigrant from Guatemala and a member of the Georgetown community whose death abruptly divided a family between mourning and a legal process.
The criminal case will have to answer narrower questions than the family’s broader ones. Prosecutors must prove the specific offenses they pursue, based on admissible evidence and the legal standards that apply to manslaughter and the related counts. Public records indicate police recovered a scoped rifle and obtained statements from Moorhead and people who were with Chilel Soto. Authorities have not released a complete evidentiary record, and the defense has not publicly litigated those allegations at a trial. The preliminary-hearing waiver means there was no early public proceeding at which witnesses were required to testify about the events in the field.
For the family, however, the consequences were immediate rather than procedural. A routine walk ended at a hospital, five children lost their mother and relatives began making arrangements while trying to understand how the shooting occurred. Supporters have continued to emphasize Chilel Soto’s identity and life as the court case advances. The family’s public criticism of the shooting remains separate from the legal question of Moorhead’s criminal responsibility, which must be decided through the courts.
Moorhead’s case was headed toward Delaware Superior Court after he waived his Sept. 25 preliminary hearing, with a possible grand-jury presentation among the next procedural steps reported by the Delaware News Journal. The reviewed public sources do not establish a final resolution as of Nov. 7. Until the case is resolved, Chilel Soto’s death remains both the subject of a pending prosecution and the loss around which her family and community have continued to gather.
Author note: Last updated November 7, 2026.