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The Dark History of the Mojave Desert
The Murder of Carol Armfield
Carol Armfield was a young woman with a hopeful future when she enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1984. At 20 years old, Carol was sent to Fort Irwin, California.
Carol had been married to a man named David Simonson. They’d married while in Fargo, but things didn’t seem to be working out so well when Carol moved to California. In fall of 1984, Carol had apparently initiated proceedings to end her marriage.
On December 10, Armfield was found strangled and beaten along the highway.
When Carol’s murder occurred, David and his brother, Jeff, were facing charges of abducting a woman from a Nebraska rest stop with a knife and stealing a car. The duo left the victim gagged in a field and completed their trip to California to see David’s wife. They were arrested in California for the crime, and they were released on bond. Eventually, they would each serve about 10 years for the kidnapping.
Simonson was initially charged with Carol’s murder, but charges were dropped. In spite of suspicion that the Simonson brothers had participated in ending Carol’s life, police lacked the evidence necessary to charge them.
Since she was the youngest of five children, Carol had many siblings who spoke about the joy she brought into…
