“Ekaterinburg remains” may belong to royal family, – expert

The ongoing examinations of the “Ekaterinburg remains” supposedly belonging to the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife and children have revealed circumstantial evidence that they may in fact belong to the royal family, reports Interfax-Religion.

“We found traces of a blow from a sword on the head presumably of Nicholas II,” said famous Russian criminologist Vyacheslav Popov.

Popov participated in the study of the remains found near Ekaterinburg which were buried in St. Petersburg’s Peter and Paul Fortress as the alleged remains of the royal family, and is now participating in forensic and anthropological research as part of a renewed criminal case about the murder of St. Tsar Nicholas II and his sainted family.

As the expert noted, dental examinations confirm that the five remains found near Ekaterinburg in 1991 are in fact those of relatives.

“These five people, especially the four women, represent one family. The girls have a special tooth and jaw structure. For example, the fourth lower right tooth of each of them is turned. This is an important sign of kinship. The second sign of connection is an hereditary tooth condition. Tooth decay began early in all of them. The youngest girl has fillings in nearly all her teeth,” Popov continued.

Further, he argues that the women whose remains were found must have had a high social status because they had a personal dentist, who knew the family condition and gave them silver fillings even before decay began. “Note that ordinary people did not have silver amalgam fillings,” he said.

Genetic research is still in its final stages, Popov states.

In January 2017, Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov), the secretary of the church commission for the “Ekaterinburg remains, ” told the Interfax-Religion portal that genetic examinations are being carried out in the world's best laboratories, a very extensive anthropological examination “with fundamentally new data” is coming to an end, historical and criminological expertise is being done. As for the recognition or non-recognition of the remains as holy relics, according to the bishop, “only the Council of Bishops will make final conclusions”.

A grave with nine bodies was found on Staraya Koptyakovskaya Road near Yekaterinburg in July 1991. The remains were identified as those of Emperor Nicholas II, his wife, their daughters, and their servants. Members of the imperial family were buried at a sepulcher of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg in 1998.

The remains of two more people were discovered during archaeological excavation works 70 meters south of the first grave on July 26, 2007. The remains have still not been buried, but numerous expert analyses indicate that the remains were most likely those of Crown Prince Alexey and his sister Maria.