DNA Confirms Remains Of Czar's Children

Old basketballs sit on the curb outside of a house in Joppatowne, Md., Friday, June 1, 2012, where a 21-year-old college student accused of killing a housemate told police he ate the victim's heart and part of his brain after he died. Alexander Kinyua, a Kenya native, is charged with first-degree murder and other charges in the death of 37-year-old Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) / Patrick Semansky

DNA tests performed by a U.S. laboratory have proved that bone fragments exhumed in the Ural Mountains belong to two children of Russia's last czar, Russian news agencies reported Wednesday.

Eduard Rossel, governor of the Sverdlovsk region, told a news conference that the fragments, dug up last year near the city Yekaterinburg, were indeed those of Crown Prince Alexei and his sister, Maria.

"The main genetic laboratory in the United States has concluded its work with a full confirmation," Rossel was quoted by RIA-Novosti and Interfax as saying. "We have now found the entire family."

Researchers dug up the bone shards near the place where Bolsheviks executed Czar Nicholas II, his family and several servants in 1918.

After genetic tests convinced forensics experts of their authenticity, they were buried in 1998 in a cathedral in the imperial capital of St. Petersburg. The Russian Orthodox Church canonized Nicholas and his family in 2000, though expressed persistent doubts that the remains were indeed those of the czar's family.

The remains of Alexei and Maria, however, had never been located, leading to decades of speculation that perhaps one or both had survived.

Neither Interfax nor RIA-Novosti indicated which laboratory Rossel was referring to, but a genetic research team working at the University of Massachusetts Medical School had been involved in the process.

[nautika9]

were can i go to get m dna tested , my great grandmother was a cousin of Anastasia romanova....

[Meg003]

Cfigo, are you talking to yourself? Obviously, you read the article.

I think that people in America find the story of the family''s deaths riveting because of the lingering hope that some of the children survived. This seems to me to be a normal, natural tendency of a resilient people, to reach for hope instead of despair.

May we Americans continue to recover from our setbacks by striving for something better.

[gaye5]

Thanks cbsguest6 ...and Vashka

[cfigo]

The American maudlin fascination and near worship for this family and royals generally is laughable. Americans care more about American Idol and Dancing with the stars than they do about signing statements, domestic spying, trade imbalances, our sinking currency, $4.00 a gallon gasoline and our leaders ginning up a third war with Iran; not to mention a corporate media complicit in all of it. Drink your bud light and watch your ball game then go back to sleep....enablers all.

[cbsguest6]

Vashka you''re so nice:)

[vashka-2009]

I am surprised by reading some of these comments, they are so harsh and cruel to the murdered family! To clear up the "Anastasia" story let me say yes it was Anastasia whom Anna Anderson claimed to be. DNA tests proved her a fraud in 1994. Now these new tests are on the last 2 bodies found that had been missing proving all the kids have now been found and nobody got away. Alexei was the Tsar''s only son. Marie was the third daughter, Anastasia the fourth. The Russian scientists believed Marie was missing, but the Americans believe it was Anastasia for all the reasons mentioned in the post by "Romanovs." That person is right about all the things they said in their post.al But Anastasia is not missing anymore because all the bodies have now been found and identified with DNA.

[vashka-2009]

I am surprised by reading some of these comments, they are so harsh and cruel to the murdered family! To clear up the "Anastasia" story let me say yes it was Anastasia whom Anna Anderson claimed to be. DNA tests proved her a fraud in 1994. Now these new tests are on the last 2 bodies found that had been missing proving all the kids have now been found and nobody got away. Alexei was the Tsar''s only son. Marie was the third daughter, Anastasia the fourth. The Russian scientists believed Marie was missing, but the Americans believe it was Anastasia for all the reasons mentioned in the post by "Romanovs." That person is right about all the things they said in their post.al But Anastasia is not missing anymore because all the bodies have now been found and identified with DNA.

[vashka-2009]

I am surprised by reading some of these comments, they are so harsh and cruel to the murdered family! To clear up the "Anastasia" story let me say yes it was Anastasia whom Anna Anderson claimed to be. DNA tests proved her a fraud in 1994. Now these new tests are on the last 2 bodies found that had been missing proving all the kids have now been found and nobody got away. Alexei was the Tsar''s only son. Marie was the third daughter, Anastasia the fourth. The Russian scientists believed Marie was missing, but the Americans believe it was Anastasia for all the reasons mentioned in the post by "Romanovs." That person is right about all the things they said in their post.al But Anastasia is not missing anymore because all the bodies have now been found and identified with DNA.

[vashka-2009]

I am surprised by reading some of these comments, they are so harsh and cruel to the murdered family! To clear up the "Anastasia" story let me say yes it was Anastasia whom Anna Anderson claimed to be. DNA tests proved her a fraud in 1994. Now these new tests are on the last 2 bodies found that had been missing proving all the kids have now been found and nobody got away. Alexei was the Tsar''s only son. Marie was the third daughter, Anastasia the fourth. The Russian scientists believed Marie was missing, but the Americans believe it was Anastasia for all the reasons mentioned in the post by "Romanovs." That person is right about all the things they said in their post.al But Anastasia is not missing anymore because all the bodies have now been found and identified with DNA.

[cbsguest6]

Yes they did, and if you scroll to one of my past posts on here you can get all the info at Wikipedia.