Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist (17 page)

The bones of the Tsar, his family and servants, arranged on tables at the forensic institute of Ekaterinburg. From left to right in this view are the remains of Dr. Eugene Botkin, Grand Duchess Olga and Tsar Nicholas II.

Dr. Lowell Levine explains the dental evidence to (left to right) Dr. Michael Baden, Dr. William Goza, Tatyana Kondrashova and a Russian expert.

The entrance wound in the top left side of Dr. Botkin’s skull. All the bullets recovered and all the bullet wounds observed were consistent with .32-caliber ammunition.

I examine the skull of Tsar Nicholas II.

The cranium of Body No. 5, showing the missing portions of the face. This was the youngest skull in the group, but it is still too old to be Anastasia’s.

The entrance wound in the top left side of the head of Body No. 6. This skull may have belonged to the Grand Duchess Tatiana.

The skull of Grand Duchess Tatiana.

Tsarina Alexandra’s upper jaw and numerous gold and porcelain crowns and platinum crowns, and dental restorations. This exquisite dental work was the first sign to the excavators that the occupants of the burial pit were royalty.

The skull of Tsar Nicholas II.

Dr. William Hamilton and Dr. Alexander Melamud look on as I extract a tooth for later DNA analysis.
(Photo courtesy of Margaret Maples.)

A radius (above in the photograph) from the arm associated with Body No. 4 (Tsar Nicholas) is clearly larger than the radius and ulna now associated with Body No. 9 (the footman, Trupp). It ought to be shorter. I therefore believe that these radii have gotten mixed up, and that the Tsar will be served in death, as he was in life, by the arms of his faithful footman.

Taken 21 months before their deaths, the relative heights of (left to right) Anastasia, Olga, Tsar Nicholas II, Alexei, Tatiana and Marie can be seen.
(Photo courtesy of Beineke Library, Yale University.)

The family relationship between Tsarina Alexandra and Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh. Mitochondrial DNA is passed on through the female line and remains the same, generation after generation.