
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, September 1, 1995                   TAG: 9509010064
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO AP. DNA SCIENTIST 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                  LENGTH: Medium

DNA EXPERTS SAY BONES ARE THOSE OF THE LAST CZAR

PRINCESS ANASTASIA'S fate, for decades the subject of speculation, was not part of the investigation.

Bones unearthed in a shallow grave are beyond doubt those of Czar Nicholas II, DNA experts announced, clearing the way for the ceremonial burial of the Russian emperor executed 77 years ago by a revolutionary firing squad.

But the three-month U.S.-Russian investigation did not deal with another vexing question: Did Nicholas' daughter, Princess Anastasia, somehow escape the Bolsheviks' bullets?

Army Lt. Col. Victor W. Weedn, who runs the DNA laboratory for the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, told a news conference Thursday of the results of the DNA testing.

``A great murder mystery spanning most of the decade is solved,'' he said.

Weedn said DNA from the bones perfectly matched DNA taken from the skeleton of Nicholas' younger brother, George, who died at age 28 of tuberculosis in 1899. His skeleton was exhumed from a royal crypt last year.

The last of the ruling Romanovs were executed in 1918. The bodies were dumped into a pool of sulfuric acid 20 miles outside of the Ural Mountain city of Yekaterinburg.

The grave was located by a Russian geologist and a Moscow film-maker in 1979. Twelve years later, the bone fragments were unearthed.

Investigators identified them as the remains of the czar, Czarina Alexandra and three of their five children, as well as their doctor, valet, cook and maid. No trace was found of one daughter - either Anastasia or Marie - and the sickly son, Alexis.

If the DNA results are accepted as conclusive, church and state authorities in Russia will have to decide whether to rebury the remains at Yekaterinburg or in St. Petersburg.

The burial had been scheduled for March in St. Petersburg, but delayed to allow the new investigation.

But the investigation stayed away from the Anastasia mystery. Since the grave yielded bones from only three of the four daughters, left unresolved was whether Anastasia, 17 at the time, or Marie, 19, might have survived, along with Alexis, 13. Over the years legends have claimed that Anastasia escaped and lived abroad in anonymity.

Last year, however, a Russian government commission claimed ``definite proof'' that one of the skeletons was Anastasia's.

by CNB