Joshua Riley, a 35-year-old White male from Houston, Delaware, died after a late-night shooting near Felton in Kent County. In the early hours of February 27, 2023, Delaware State Police were called to the area of Hopkins Cemetery Road and Marshyhope Road after someone reported a person lying in a ditch near the roadway. When troopers arrived around 12:30 a.m., they found Riley on the ground near the road suffering from a gunshot wound to his upper extremity.
He was taken from the scene to an area hospital, but he was pronounced dead after arrival.
Investigators later pieced together the moments before the shooting and determined that Riley's vehicle had broken down in the area. Stranded along the rural roadway, he went to a nearby residence and used a phone to call for assistance. After making that call, he returned to his disabled vehicle. Police said that sometime after he got back, a confrontation occurred, and Riley was shot. He was later identified by Delaware State Police as the victim in the Felton-area homicide.
The case was handled by the Delaware State Police Homicide Unit, which described the investigation as active after Riley's death. Publicly released information did not identify the person Riley encountered after returning to his vehicle, and no suspect description was provided in the reports located. Police asked anyone with information to contact Detective A. Bluto or submit a tip through Delaware Crime Stoppers.
No arrests, charges, trial proceedings, or convictions were found in the available online source information. The public accounts of the case leave Riley's killing as a homicide investigation centered on a broken-down vehicle, a return to the roadside, and a fatal confrontation with an unknown person near Felton.
