Russia exhumes Czar Nicholas II, 1918 murder case reopened

Mary Bowerman | USA TODAY Network

The Russian Investigative Committee has exhumed the bones of Czar Nicholas II and his wife as part of a new probe into the 1918 murder of the royal family. Investigators plan to use genetic testing to identify whether bone fragments found in 2007 belong to two of the czar's children.

In 1918, the czar, his wife and five children were gunned down in the basement of a home where they were held by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution.

The remains of the czar, his wife and three of their children were uncovered in a mass grave in 1991. DNA testing confirmed their identity, and the family was laid to rest in 1998 in St. Petersburg. The Russian Orthodox Church canonized the family in 2000, AP reported.

Because two of the remaining family members were unaccounted for in the mass grave, rumors persisted that two of the czar's children escaped the attack that took the lives of the rest of the royal family. In 2007, the legend seemed to be put to rest when bones fragments of the czar's other two children, Crown Prince Alexei, 13, and Grand Duchess Maria, 19, were found in a nearby grave.

While forensic experts confirmed that the remains were likely those of Alexi and Maria, the Russian Orthodox Church requested the investigation into the 1918 murders be reopened, Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee told the Russian news agency Tass.

The church wants fool-proof confirmation that the remains belong to the missing prince and princess before they are buried alongside the royal family, BBC reported.

"The leadership of the Investigative Committee has decided to resume the preliminary investigation to conduct additional studies and investigative steps," Markin told Interfax.

In addition to exhuming the bodies, tissue from family members buried in Jerusalem has been obtained, as well as blood samples from Nicholas' grandfather's bloodstained uniform, Markin told Tass.

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