Remains may be children of last czar

Yahoo ^ | 9/28 | Mike Eckel

[darkangel82]

MOSCOW - There is a "high degree of probability" that bone fragments found recently near the Russian city of Yekaterinburg are those of a daughter and son of the last czar, forensics experts said Friday.

If confirmed, the find would fill in a missing chapter in the story of the doomed Romanovs, who were killed after the violent 1917 Bolshevik Revolution ushered in more than 70 years of Communist rule.

The fragments were found by archaeologists in a burned field near the Ural Mountains city where Czar Nicholas II, his wife, Alexandra, and their five children were held prisoner by the Bolsheviks and then shot in 1918. The discovery was announced in August.

"Investigators have made a preliminary conclusion that there is a high degree of probability that the bones ... belong to the Crown Prince Alexei and Princess Maria," said Vladimir Gromov, deputy forensic chief in the Sverdlovsk region, in televised remarks. "I want to emphasize, though, that this conclusion has a deeply preliminary character."

Alexei, 13, was the heir to the Russian throne.

Federal forensic investigator Vladimir Solovyev said that conclusions were based on "anthropological and dental" tests, and he warned that the genetic tests would be difficult since the fragments were burned and badly damaged.

NTV television said in August that along with the remains archaeologists found shards of a ceramic container of sulfuric acid as well as nails, metal strips from a wooden box, and bullets of various caliber.

Prosecutors have said they would reopen an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of the royal family, a decision that suggested the government was taking the discovery seriously.

[Dante3]

It would not surprise me if they failed to feel any remorse. Such a sad story.