DoD Lab Helps to Resolve Century-Old Russian Mystery [Tsar Survivors]

DefenseLink (DoD News) ^ | July 15, 2008 | Fred Baker

[PurpleMan]

"A Defense Department DNA identification lab has helped bring to a close a near-century-old mystery, laying to rest a search for the remains of two children executed alongside the rest of the family of Russia’s last czar."

"Now, the lab has again helped the Russian government by identifying the remains of those two children, found last year in a shallow grave about 70 feet from the larger gravesite."

[PurpleMan]

Legends die hard.

[AU72]

"To make an omlette you have to break a few eggs"

V. Lenin

[Mikey_1962]

Its been keeping me up nights. Now I can sleep well.

[Thanks RR Rest Well]

Besides, Lenin brought Hope and Change to millions.

[3AngelaD]

Way cool.

[rawhide]

Very fancisnating article on how they proved this.

[Brilliant]

Hard to believe that the commies will kill innocent children....

[rawhide]

[Perdogg]

ping

[John123]

What is with the Russians and the last Tsar?

[King_Corey]

Very cool, sent it on to a friend who loves the history of this stuff.

[purpleraine]

Isn’t this the lab that found out the ID of one of the “Unknowns” at Arlington. Also, couldn’t they now identify the others if families of MIAs from those wars submitted samples. Large project I know.

[Stonewall Jackson]

JPAC has been working on it nonstop for decades now, but with 80,000 MIAs from WW2, 8,800 from Korea, and 1,800 from Vietnam, it is a slow process.

Thanks to DNA, they are now able to go back to their cold cases and are solving them at a rate of about two per week.

Oliver North's War Stories from the 4th of July weekend was about JPAC and their amazing story. I am currently working on my degree in military history and hope to go to work with JPAC once I have my master's.

[PurpleMan]

“What is with the Russians and the last Tsar?”

IMHYIO (In My Humble Yet Ignorant Opinion)

From one perspective, it is often thought that the Russian people...how shall on say...liked the monarchy of the tsar.

Another one is that since the Romanovs ruled Russia from 1613 to 1917 it’s interesting to know if there are, if fact any left.

Lastly, is Anastasia claiming to be the last survivor.

[raygun]

ping

[spanalot]

The Tsars had plenty of blood on their hands - as barbaric sometimes as the commies - good riddance to them all.

[Old Student]

“Hard to believe that the commies will kill innocent children....”

If so, you haven’t been paying attention.

[Cyman]

So much for the Tsar, the Tsarina and the Tsardines.

Sorry couldn’t resist

[purpleraine]

I was referring specifically to identifying those in plaza in Arlington, but I guess many more would take their place. Thanx for the info.

[Stonewall Jackson]

I imagine that eventually there would be a chance that they could identify the Unknowns from World War Two and Korea, like they did with the Unknown from Vietnam. But I doubt they will be able to do so with the Unknown from World War One. It would be hard, if not impossible, to get a positive DNA match unless they have a direct descendant, and even then, the degradation of time might have eliminated any chance of getting any viable DNA from the remains.