Dolores community plans candlelight vigil for recent graduate killed in crash

A candlelight vigil for 18-year-old Taisali Lambson was set for Joe Rowell Park in Dolores, with the gathering scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. The event was organized after Lambson, a recent Dolores High School Class of 2026 graduate, was killed in a crash last week.

Joe Rowell Park, one of Dolores’ main public gathering places and a site for major community events such as the Dolores River Festival, became the focal point for the town’s response to the loss. In a county with an estimated population of 2,466 in 2025, the death of a recent graduate touched a small school community already closely tied to one another.

Lambson had just finished her senior year at Dolores High School, where the Class of 2026 included 38 students at its spring commencement ceremony. Her death was described in a GoFundMe fundraiser set up for the family, which said she died in a motor vehicle accident on June 19, 2026. The fundraiser also described her as a recent graduate who had big plans for her future.

Details about the crash itself remained limited. Efforts to learn more about what happened were unsuccessful this week, and Montezuma County Undersheriff Tyson Cox said the crash did not take place in Montezuma County. No additional public information was available about where the collision occurred or what led to it.

The vigil added a formal place and time for Dolores residents to gather after the death of a young woman who had only recently walked across the graduation stage. With Joe Rowell Park already serving as a central site for town events, the vigil placed Lambson’s loss in the center of the community that knew her family, her school and her home in Dolores County.