Module 6 - Forensic Anthropology and Forensic Entomology (Bones & Bugs)

- Source: Hoover Institution Stanford Report website (March 3, 2004)
Landhuis, Esther: Finger points to new evidence: Remains may not be Romanovs

Background Information

The Romanovs were the royal family that reigned in the largest country in the world, Russia, for 305 years. When the Communist party came into power in 1917, Czar Nicholas II was forced to give up his throne. He and his family were placed under house arrest in Siberia. On the night of July 17, 1918, the former Czar, his wife, their five children, and four royal attendants were executed by communist soldiers known as the Bolsheviks.

The Executions

The Romanovs and their royal attendants were taken into the basement of the house in which they were being detained. In thirty minutes, more than a dozen soldiers killed the entire group of eleven victims. To prevent identification, each body was stripped of its clothing, and the soldiers used their rifle butts to smash each face. Then the bodies were thrown into a truck and taken to a remote area. Before the victims were thrown down an abandoned mineshaft, the bodies were soaked in sulfuric acid and burned. In another attempt to prevent identification of the bodies, several grenades were detonated in the mineshaft.

When rumours of the burial site spread to a nearby town, several high-ranking soldiers went back secretly, removed the bodies from the mineshaft, and loaded them into a truck. They intended to move the bodies to another undisclosed site; however, their truck broke down. Consequently, the soldiers buried most of the bodies in a concealed pit near an abandoned cart track.

Initially, the Communist government tried to cover the murders by announcing the family had mysteriously disappeared. Eventually, the government announced that the former Czar had been executed and that his family had been sent away to another detainment site.

Discovery of the Bodies

After 74 years, the skeletal remains of the Romanovs and their royal attendants were excavated in 1991. Two of the bodies were not found in this mass burial site. It was assumed but not confirmed that these were left in the mineshaft. To confirm the identity of the nine bodies found, bone samples were sent to Britain and the United States for DNA analysis. Czaritsa Aleksandra was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England so investigators used mitochondrial DNA analysis to link her skeleton and the skeletons of three of her daughters to another member of the British Royal Family, Prince Phillip. Mitochondrial DNA also linked the body of one of the adult males to Czar Nicolai II's brother. Finally, nuclear DNA connected these two adults and the three young women to each other. The remaining four skeleltons were unrelated to the royal family.

Teams of Russian and American forensic anthropologists analyzing the skeletal remains were able to determine the age and sex of each skeleton. Both teams of scientists determined that nine victims likely died from multiple bullet wounds to the head and body and from multiple bayonet wounds to the body.

Famed American forensic anthropologist, Dr. William Maples, identified each of the skeletal remains. He identified the Romanov daughters by looking at the maturation of their pelvic bones and wisdom teeth (third molars). Nicholas was identified by looking at his face shape, poor teeth, height, and his pelvis that was deformed because he had spent many hours on horseback. Maples was able to identify Nicholas’ wife and one of the royal attendants, their personal physician, by their unique dental work. The physician had worn a dental plate and Nicholas’ wife had expensive platinum crowns. The royal maid was identified by the fact she had worn joints due to her many years of hard work. The royal cook was identified because of his unique brow shape, and the royal footman was identified by his age and height. Dr. Maples determined that the two missing skeletons were those of Nicholas’ only son, Alexei, and his youngest daughter, Anastasia.

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

Genetic testing by geneticists and skeletal analysis by forensic anthropologists led to the assumption that the remains were authentic. A funeral was held for the Romanovs and their attendants in 1998, and the bodies were laid to rest with State honours. Some branches of the Russian Orthodox Church even recognized the Romanovs as saints.