ROMANOV MYSTERY SOLVED

- Forensic Science Service -

Nine skeletons found in a shallow grave in Ekaterinburg, Russia, in July 1991 were tentatively identified as being the remains of the last Tsar, Tsarina and three of their five children - the Romanov family.

It is believed that shortly after the night of 16th July 1918, Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Tsarina Alexandra and their five children Olga, Tatyana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexei were executed by the Bolsheviks. Their bodies were to have been transported to a mine shaft where they would have been disposed of however, the truck transporting them developed a mechanical fault along the way and so a shallow grave was hastily dug on the roadside and the bodies buried in un-consecrated ground.

Despite extensive forensic evidence being collected, the version of events described above had never been positively verified and in 1992 the Forensic Science Service was approached by the Russian authorities to initiate an Anglo-Russian investigation to verify the authenticity of the remains using DNA analysis.

Using samples taken from the surviving bones, the FSS performed DNA based sex testing and short tandem repeat (STR) analysis, the results of which confirmed that a family group was present in the grave. In addition a further testing technique was employed analysing Mitochondrial DNA (MtDNA).

Mitochondrial DNA is a tiny amount of the total DNA present and can therefore be used when samples are too small, old or degraded for analysis by normal means. Where there is no body fluid or tissue available, Mitochondrial DNA can be taken from bone. MtDNA is more likely to survive for prolonged periods than chromosomal DNA and is particularly suited to tracing maternal inheritance and testing relatedness if there are several generations between ancestor and living descendant.

Following this extensive analysis, the FSS concluded that the DNA evidence produced supports the hypothesis that the remains are those of the Romanov family.