Russian researchers have reopened a notorious murder case – that of the last tsar and his family, the Romanovs. But the remains of Alexei Romanov and Maria Romanov, were not found until 2007 and in a different place in the Ural Mountains.
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The tsar, his wife, their five children and their servants were shot by the Bolsheviks and thrown into a mineshaft in 1918 before being burnt and hastily buried.
The powerful Investigative Committee confirmed some of the family’s remains were being re-examined, with spokesman Vladimir Markin saying the probe would look into “the circumstances of the death and burial of the imperial family”.
The remains of Maria and Alexei were planned to be buried with those of the rest of the family on October 18, TASS news agency reported earlier this month.
The Romanov dynasty ruled Russian Federation for some 300 years before Nicholas II abdicated in 1917 after the Bolshevik Revolution and ensuing Communist rule.
The remains of nine casualties were discovered in a mass grave in 1993.
Further DNA tests will be conducted involving other royals relatives.
They are: Tsarevich Alexei, Grand Duchess Maria – both kept at the Russian State Archive – Alexandra’s sister the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna, and Nicholas’s grandfather, former Tsar Alexander II, who was assassinated in 1881.
On Wednesday, the bodies of Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra were exhumed at the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg and samples taken from them, Interfax reported.
Nicholas, Alexandra and the three daughters found in 1991 were reburied in 1998 and canonised by the Church in 2000.
Only now can investigators get access to Elizabeth’s remains, which are in Jerusalem. Researchers need to analyze spots of blood.
After they were killed, the royals were buried in mineshafts by revolutionaries in the Urals.
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Records from the so called “White Guards Investigation” concerning the 1918 homicide may also be examined. They came to light in the past four years.
