I think I have the real deal breaker for all claimants here. Somebody emailed me this last night. It's dated in July, I don't know how we've missed it for that long. This article looks like it answers all the questions.
DefenseLink News Article: DoD Lab Helps to Resolve Century-Old Russian Mystery
Questions answered by this article:
1. Is there a definitive declaration that everyone died?
Answer: YES
Quote from article:
“There’s no doubt that nobody escaped,” said Dr. Michael Coble, the research section chief for the lab. “We can conclude here that based on this evidence, we have [recovered] the two missing children.”
2. What bones were used for testing? (it's been suggested maybe it was only a tooth, or perhaps something from the other grave)
Answer: Leg bones of the male and female. Not a tooth for Alexei, and since no leg bones are missing from the first three girls, this one is definitely the fourth and missing girl.
Quote from article:
Two main fragments, though, were about a half inch thick and a couple of inches in diameter. They were thigh bones, hollow in the middle, one from a male and one from a female. Leg bone samples are best for DNA testing, Coble said, because they are thick and dense.
3. Were separate profiles made for each girl?
Answer: Looks like one was made for each member of the family. They already had profiles for the two 2007 bodies, and then made profiles of the parents and other three girls.
Quote from article:
Then, to prove that the remains were the missing siblings of the Russian royal family, the lab went back to samples from the larger gravesite and developed DNA profiles of the other siblings and parents.
4. Does this mean we can tell which girl was missing and which was in the grave, Anastasia or Maria?
Answer: No, because there is no nuclear DNA sample preserved from either of those girls when they were alive to compare to the nuclear DNA found in the bones. However, there were different profiles for all the children and all four girls were proven to have died that night.
5. What are the odds there was some mistake, and these are only random people murdered and dumped in same area the with similar DNA?
Quotes from article:
So the lab then looked at the nuclear DNA of the samples. Everyone gets half of their nuclear DNA from each parent. This data showed that the samples were from a male and female who shared some DNA.
In fact, the data showed that it was more than 5 million times more likely they were related to each other than not, Coble said. Scientists are typically convinced of relationship with a likelihood ratio greater than 500, he said.
The chances of the two bodies in the burn pit NOT being siblings is 5 million to one. That is far more than the 500 to one that qualifies as convincing to scientists.
6.What are the odds these are just two siblings who happened to be dumped there and are not related to the royal family?Quote from the article:
When the samples were matched, the data showed that the likelihood they were members of the royal family was more than 4 trillion times the likelihood they were not. A typically strong likelihood ratio would be more than 1,000, Coble said.
The odds they were not related to the family in the mass grave are FOUR TRILLION TO ONE- and it only takes 1000 to 1 to convince scientists. So as you can see the odds are astronomically in favor of these being our Romanovs, and all the scientists are completely convinced they have found all the children.
7. What type of DNA testing was done?
Answer: (from info in the article) ALL 3 types- mtDNA and nuclear on the male and the female, and Y chromosome for the male. You will see the details spelled out in the article. All forms of testing gave the same conclusions, very strong evidence that the bones were from the 2 missing Romanov children.
8. What are the names of the labs involved?
According to the article:
US Department of Defense DNA Lab
Institute for Forensic Medicine in Innsbruck, Austria,
a Russian scientist doing collaborative work at a lab at the
University of Massachusetts.
9. How do we know this isn't just more of the Russian putting a spin on things?
Answer: This information in this article came from an American scientist who works for the Dept of Defense lab, and his work has matched the ones done in Austria and by the Russian working in Mass. So there's no way to blame the Russian officials for anything here. Yes, perhaps the Russian officials were not as thorough as they should have been in their latest announcements, maybe they felt they didn't need to be. But getting the real deal straight from the horse's mouth of the guy who did the tests tells the story.
10. Does this mean an end to all claimant possibilities?
Answer: YES
These details explained in the article put the last nail in the coffin of hope for claimants. Now since all the bodies have been found and there's proof no one escaped, it doesn't even matter if AA's intestines were switched or not!
So as you can see there is no doubt about the authenticity of the bones and fragments tested. They are the Romanovs, all 7 of them.
No matter what outcome we had hoped for, now we can all put this issue behind us and move on and accept these test results and the answers they provide. Instead of trying to find reasons not to believe them, we should honor and respect the scientists and labs who worked so hard to get these results for us, and thank them for their historic conclusions.
