- Resurrecting a debate over one of the 20th century's
most enduring mysteries, a team of scientists is casting doubt on DNA tests
that confirmed the deaths of Czar Nicholas II, the last ruler of imperial
Russia, and most of his family.
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- In a newly released report, the scientists declare that
the testing of remains found in the Ural Mountains was shoddy and flawed.
They add that their own tests on the preserved finger of the sister of
the czar's wife raise even more questions about the original findings.
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- "There was a rush to judgment," said report
co-author Alec Knight, senior research scientist at Stanford University.
"It's up to the scientific community to evaluate whether it's feasible
to get results like that."
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- The findings are infuriating the scientists who reported
and confirmed the original DNA tests in the mid-1990s. "Could we all
be duped? I just believe that is inconceivable," said Dr. Victor Weedn,
principal research scientist at Carnegie Mellon University, who confirmed
some of the original DNA findings. "The group of people who have been
working on these things are honest and trustworthy."
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- The glamorous Romanovs, the ruling dynasty of Russia,
lost power during the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Czar Nicholas II, Empress
Alexandra and their children -- Alexis, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia,
all of whom were in their teens or early 20s -- were packed off to exile
in the Ural Mountains.
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- Late one night, according to witnesses, their imprisonment
ended when the entire family was executed by firing squad, along with their
doctor, three servants and Anastasia's pet King Charles spaniel.
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- The Romanovs have haunted the popular imagination ever
since. Books, documentaries and movies have explored everything from the
love affair between Nicholas and Alexandra to Alexis' life-threatening
hemophilia, inherited from his grandmother, Great Britain's Queen Victoria.
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- Most famously, women have claimed to be the long-lost
Anastasia, spawning an Ingrid Bergman film and endless speculation about
a courageous surviving princess.
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- In 1991, as the Soviet Union fell apart, researchers
exhumed nine bodies from a bog near Ekaterinburg. Tests on mitochondrial
DNA -- handed down by mothers -- confirmed genetic links between the bodies
of four females and Great Britain's Prince Philip, who is related to Empress
Alexandra.
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- Mitochondrial DNA tests also linked the body of an adult
male to the exhumed body of Czar Nicholas' brother; both had a rare mutation
that left them with two forms of mitochondrial DNA. Finally, nuclear DNA
tests connected two adults and the four young women to each other.
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- In all, the researchers concluded that the bodies in
the grave were those of the czar, his wife, three of their four daughters,
and four other people -- presumably the doctor and the three servants.
The son, Alexis, and one daughter -- Anastasia? -- are missing. However,
DNA tests suggested that the most famous Anastasia wannabe, an American
woman named Anna Anderson, was not related to Empress Alexandra.
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- The new report, in the Jan. 28 online edition of the
Annals of Human Biology, questions the DNA findings. The authors, including
geneticists from Stanford University and the Russian Academy of Sciences,
allege that "major violations of standard forensic practices"
took place, and they suspect that "fresh" DNA -- perhaps from
researchers -- contaminated the samples.
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- They also allege that the DNA testing produced results
that were too specific for such old, decayed remains. "If you obtain
results like that, they're evidence of contamination," Knight said.
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- Through a spokesman, the researcher behind the original
findings declined to comment because he is working on a formal response.
But the researcher, Peter Gill of Great Britain's Forensic Science Service,
did appear in the journal Science, saying Knight's work is "vindictive
and political.''
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- Weedn, the principal research scientist at Carnegie Mellon
University, defended the original findings, pointing out that the remains
were found in an area of permafrost that could have preserved them. After
all, he said, DNA results are often preserved through freezing. Knight
counters that summer temperatures can go quite high in the region, and
he doubts permafrost is there at all. "People are grasping for straws
because they know it's impossible to get those results from these badly
decomposed bones," he said.
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- Another researcher who worked on the original Romanov
projects expressed amazement at the idea that the DNA from the remains
could have been contaminated yet still reveal links to Prince Philip and
the czar's brother.
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- "That is not going to happen by accident. What has
to be implied here is some kind of bizarre conspiracy theory," said
Tom Parsons, chief scientist of the Armed Forces DNA Identification Lab,
whose office confirmed the DNA tests that linked Czar Nicholas to his brother.
If the contamination came from "some random schmo," it wouldn't
magically provide a link to the czar, he added.
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- In response, Knight insisted that he isn't accusing the
researchers of working together to twist the truth. "I never dreamed
that all those people got together and committed conspiracy," Knight
said, although he hinted that others may have tinkered with the remains.
"All sorts of people have vested interests in this thing."
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- In search of support for their theories, the authors
of the new study turned to a preserved finger that apparently belonged
to Grand Duchess Elisabeth, Empress Alexandra's sister, who was killed
by the Bolsheviks in 1918. A Russian Orthodox bishop kept the finger, considered
a relic, after Elisabeth's coffin was opened in Jerusalem in 1981.
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- DNA tests on the finger, which consists of bone and dried
flesh, failed to conclusively link it to the empress's genetic profile,
the study authors said, creating "yet another discrepancy." However,
the researchers found the finger was contaminated with the DNA of at least
two other people.
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- It's unclear if the new report will inspire any more
DNA testing.
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