Two posthumously awarded degrees from Columbus State

<p>Columbus State University has awarded posthumous degrees to a basketball player who died after collapsing during practice and a junior who fell to her death down an elevator shaft at an Atlanta hotel.</p><p>CSU basketball player Jed Bedford and junior Bethany Fuentes were among about 500 graduates honored during Saturday's commencement ceremony.</p><p>Bedford, a prolific 3-point shooter who was a senior team captain, died of cardiac arrest on Dec. 14. Results from an autopsy showed that Bedford, 21, had an enlarged heart.</p><p>Fuentes, 21, slipped while trying to get out of an elevator stuck between floors of an AmeriSuites hotel in Atlanta in May 2003.</p><p>Hotel officials said Fuentes and her boyfriend punched the emergency stop button in the elevator between the eighth and ninth floors. The man opened the doors manually and climbed out safely. Fuentes, of Warner Robins, slipped and fell down the shaft as she was trying to get out.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x2868220)</p>