Couch Communiqué

On November 27, 2007, I blogged about the last Russian Imperial Family – Czar Nicholas II , Empress Alexandra and their five children. On July 17, 1918, the Romanov family was lined up, believing they were posing for a photo, in the basement of the house they were being held. They were then brutally shot and stabbed. The remains of the family were found in 1991, but a daughter and son were not among them. Some felt the two children may have escaped the executioners. Almost 90 years later, a group of amateur sleuths found remains which them believed to be the missing children.

DNA analysis this week has proven that the two children were killed with the rest of their family during the Russian Revolution. In 2008, scientists used bone and tooth fragments to identify the remains as those of the two missing children: 13-year-old Crown Prince Alexei, the emperor’s only son and heir to the throne, and his sister Grand Duchess Maria, about 19. Researchers confirmed their findings by comparing DNA from the remains with that of living Romanov relatives.