Recognition of the remains of Tsar Nicholas II and his family: a case of premature identification?

On 17 July 1998 remains identified as those of Tsar Nicholas II and his fam ily were reburied in St. Petersburg. The interment followed the decision ta ken by the Russian Governmental Commission responsible for the study of the remains, which heavily relied on mitochondrial DNA analysis conducted on o ne or two bones from each of the nine skeletons found in the original grave site near the city of Ekaterinburg in the Urals region. The investigation s hould be regarded as inconclusive because crucially important historical in formation was not taken into account either in formulating alternative scen arios or when calculating the corresponding odds and match probabilities. A mong these factors were attempts to hide evidence and to develop false clue s about the murders, and the fact that the grave which contained the remain s was not intact and some skulls and other bones may have been added to the grave, possibly even those of relatives of the alleged persons. For these reasons, the conclusions drawn from analyses should only have applied to th e specific bones that were analysed and not to the disinterred skeletons. F urther, the mitochondrial DNA analyses only provide information on the mate rnal lineages of those allegedly in the grave, and not for specific persons . Other shortcomings also occurred in the DNA studies, in particular the ap plication of US and UK, and not Russian, population data in the analysis.