MYSTERY: The Fate of The Romanovs

Hi everyone, it's Carter. Exciting news. Video episodes of Murder True Crime Stories are now on YouTube. Every Friday, I'll be dropping a full video episode, going deeper into the cases that still haunt us, the mysteries that haven't been solved, and the stories that deserve more than just a headline. Same depth, same commitment to telling the real story. Now, you can watch it. Subscribe at Murder True Crime Stories on YouTube to catch a new video episode every Friday. This is Crime House. A trail of blood, a double-headed eagle, shallow graves, and a royal family whose story captivated the world. Most crimes are driven by greed, anger, or a need for control. They're often personal, affecting the victims, their loved ones, and their community. But sometimes, a crime is so big it transcends borders and even time itself. That's what happened in the case of the Romanov family. In the summer of 1918, the former Russian leaders were executed by a group of revolutionaries who wanted to fix everything they thought was wrong with their country. Instead, the fall of an empire led to the rise of one of the world's most haunting and deadly mysteries. This is the fate of the Romanovs. People's lives are like a story. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end. But you don't always know which part you're on. Sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon, and we don't always get to know the real ending. I'm Carter Roy, and this is Murder True Crime Stories, a crime house original powered by PAVE Studios. New episodes come out every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Thank you for being a part of the Crime House community. Please rate, review, and follow the show. And for early ad-free access to every episode, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. Welcome back to another episode of Murder Mystery Fridays, where I'm covering unsolved cases with questions that I can't get out of my head. The ones where the evidence points in multiple directions, and every theory feels like a possibility. Remember, these episodes are also on YouTube with full video. Search for Murder True Crime Stories, and be sure to like and subscribe. Today, I'm talking about one of the most haunting mysteries of the 20th century, the fate of the Romanovs. In 1918, the formal royals were held hostage and brutally killed, sparking one of the most infamous murder mysteries in history. While the truth has finally been revealed, the answers force us to look within and ask ourselves what we're really capable of. All that and more coming up. And on. From steep climbs, to slick descents, and loose rock. Speed Goat 7, run wilder. Explore more on hocker.com. Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov, known as Nicholas II, was born knowing that one day he would rule Russia. That day came on May 26, 1896, when he took the throne and officially became the Tsar. Bells rang out through Moscow, and he and his German-born wife Alexandra were crowned. But the good times wouldn't last. For Nicholas, the downfall began two years before Coronation Day, when his father passed away. Nicholas was quiet and shy. He didn't have the charisma or confidence his father had while ruling. But there was more to it than that. As the world rapidly modernized, peasants were starving, workers were striking, and resentment was building toward the royal family. The people of Russia demanded change, and in their eyes, the palace refused to let it happen. And just days after the Coronation Ceremony in 1896, they seemed to get even more confirmation that the Romanovs were unfit rulers. As part of the celebrations, about half a million people had gathered in a field to receive commemorative gifts and food. As people pushed forward, panic broke out, and the crowd descended into total chaos. An estimated 1,300 people were crushed to death with even more injured. It was a horrifying tragedy, and it had happened in the name of Nicholas II. Afterwards, he rushed home to the Alexander Palace in St. Petersburg, where Alexandra and their five children, Olga, Tatyana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei, were waiting. Now this would become a regular routine for Nicholas. He'd attend to his royal duties, then retreat to his family as soon as possible. But he still had a lot to prove to his subjects. So Nicholas made grandiose promises of reform. However, he didn't let the government make changes to the Constitution. Instead, he started issuing royal decrees, and the more this happened, the more his subjects resented him. By 1905, tensions reached a breaking point. Around 100,000 workers, peasants, and their families protested in St. Petersburg. They wanted to petition the Tsar for better wages and working hours. And they were sure Nicholas would finally hear them out. Instead, imperial guards opened fire on the crowd, killing hundreds. The tragedy would come to be known as Bloody Sunday. Although Nicholas wasn't in St. Petersburg at the time and wasn't the one who ordered the guards to fire, the blame still fell on him, and soon chaos descended on the royal palace. The new parliament challenged Nicholas's authority. In response, he disbanded the parliament entirely multiple times. He also encouraged the secret police to target anyone who spoke out against him. This only created more resentment toward him. And in 1914, those tensions collided with global chaos when World War I broke out. A lot happened over the next three years, but here are the broad strokes. Russia's economy collapsed. There were severe food shortages throughout the country, and over 5 million Russian soldiers were killed. Safe to say, the vibes were not good. And they got even worse when Nicholas decided to command the army himself to restore faith in his leadership. He headed to the front lines, leaving his wife, Alexandra, in charge of the government. Since Alexandra was born in Germany, the Russian people had always been skeptical of her. Some even accused her of collaborating with her home country in the war. By the time Nicholas returned home, public perception of the Romanovs was worse than ever. And the people of Russia thought the monarchy should be stopped for good. In early 1917, an uprising known as the February Revolution erupted across the country. Protests over food and fuel turned into full-scale rebellion. Workers went on strike, and this time soldiers joined the crowds. At the same time, the Bolsheviks, a radical faction of revolutionary communists led by Vladimir Lenin, started gaining traction and called for Nicholas to step down. Nicholas was cornered. And that's when he made a crucial decision. To abdicate the throne. Alexandra didn't agree, but Nicholas simply couldn't do it anymore. He named his brother Michael as his successor. But Michael rejected the crown. He said he would only accept if the people of Russia made it clear they wanted a monarchy. Since that was unlikely to happen, that meant three centuries of Romanov rule had officially ended. Lenin and the Bolsheviks put the Romanovs under house arrest at their palace in St. Petersburg, and the family tried to adapt to their new reality. And the former Tsar would go on daily walks and pray while Alexandra stuck close to their five children, all in their teens and early twenties. But the world outside the palace gates was growing increasingly hostile. Loyalists wanted to restore the monarchy's power, while revolutionaries wanted Nicholas exiled, or even worse, killed. And these revolutionary groups were gaining strength, especially the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks saw the monarchy as a symbol of all the oppression and inequalities in Russia. And they made promises to the Russian people of, quote, peace, land, and bread. And by November of 1917, they had overthrown the government. And that wasn't enough for them, though. In the Bolsheviks' eyes, the revolution would never fully succeed as long as the Romanovs were alive. So under the guise of protecting the family, Bolshevik officials made a decision. The Romanovs family would be moved far away into the frozen heart of Siberia. There, they would be in total isolation while the new communist government figured out their next move. Between April and May of 1918, every member of the Romanovs family was taken from the palace they called home and brought to the Bolshevik-controlled city of Vykaterinburg, located in the Ural Mountains. They were brought to a property known as the Ipatiev House, where they were kept under house arrest by armed guards. The tall fence was built around the home to keep the Romanovs separate from the townsfolk. The only people they could socialize with were the few loyal staff members they had been allowed to bring with them, including two doctors, a maid and a footman. Since they were so isolated, the Romanovs had no idea that the Bolsheviks were fighting to hold on to power in Vykaterinburg. Their opponents were a faction known as the Whites, a loose alliance of former officers and supporters of the monarchy who were trying to take Russia back. At the same time, a third faction was rising too. The Czech Legion was fighting its way westward, which made the Bolsheviks very nervous. They worried they might lose their grip on Vykaterinburg. And though they didn't have a formal alliance, the Whites and the Czechs were de facto allies against the Bolsheviks. The Romanovs didn't know the details, but they could sometimes hear gunshots ringing out. Even if the guards didn't say anything, the family could tell their lives were in danger. They just didn't know who would pull the trigger. On July 12th, the revolutionaries in charge of the family met to discuss what to do. It was clear that the former royals were a liability. And if the Czech Legion made it to Vykaterinburg and freed them, Nicholas would become the symbol of the counter-revolution. But exile wasn't an option. Even from abroad, Nicholas could still stoke rallying cries. He might even get foreign governments to support him. The Bolsheviks couldn't risk any of this happening. So they made the decision to kill the Romanovs. On July 12th, 1918, Bolshevik revolutionaries decided the Romanov family had to die. They appointed a man named Yakov Yurovsky to lead the operation. He was one of the commanders in charge of the Romanovs' captivity. His higher-ups, including Vladimir Lenin, knew how loyal and disciplined he was. Yurovsky recruited around ten men to help him. He believed they weren't just the toughest guards, but the angriest, too. They'd all suffered under the Romanovs' rule. He was right for the most part, but a few of the men needed some convincing. They'd gotten to know the family and felt protective of the girls, who they found charming and innocent. Yurovsky didn't care. Orders were orders. So in the end, they all agreed, and the group of assassins got to planning. Meanwhile, the Romanovs tried to keep up a normal routine inside the Ipoteov house. Nicholas chopped wood and wrote in his diary, Alexandra fretted over their children. The kids, 22-year-old Olga, 21-year-old Tatiana, 19-year-old Maria, 17-year-old Anastasia, and 13-year-old Alexei would pray and read to each other. But the family could sense that things had taken a dark turn. The guards wouldn't even let them open any windows, let alone go for strolls around the property. As the mood became more bleak, Nicholas clung to any piece of news he received from the outside world. Newspapers in London reported that Lenin was losing grip and peasants were rioting. They also reported that the British crown hadn't spoken out about the Romanovs at all. That was particularly painful for Nicholas, since King George V of England was his cousin. George had once offered Nicholas and his family asylum in London if things in Russia got worse. Now it seemed like that offer had expired. Nicholas was losing all hope, and suddenly, on the night of July 16th, the guards approached the family with new orders. They told the Romanovs to pack their bags because they were leaving. After 15 months of captivity, the family was stunned, but they did as they were told, and they had a plan for this very situation. One that Alexandra had come up with when they first arrived in Yekaterinburg. She and the girls had sewn their remaining jewels and other precious heirlooms into some of their dresses and pillows. Among the items was a belt buckle with the Imperial coat of arms, which was a double-headed eagle. Alexandra and the girls wore those dresses and carried the pillows in hopes that even if their bags were lost or stolen, they'd keep what was most valuable. These were the only physical remnants of their old life, and their only form of security in the face of an uncertain future. Finally, at around 2 a.m. on July 17th, they walked down the stairs. Alexandra and the girls carried their bags and pillows, and Nicholas carried Alexei. Unbeknownst to the family, the Czech Legion was closing in. City by city, they'd battled the Bolsheviks and pushed through. It was only a matter of time until they made it to Yekaterinburg to rescue the Romanovs. Vladimir Lenin had other plans. His instructions were clear. Under no circumstances were the Romanovs to fall into enemy hands, and as the risk of that happening became greater, Lenin finally gave the order to eliminate them. At around 2.15 a.m., Yakov Yuravsky emerged from the guards' quarters and ordered the family down one of the corridors. When they reached the end of the hallway, they walked past a piece of decor, a stuffed mother bear under cubs. Since they thought they were leaving the house for the last time, they all did the sign of the cross in front of the mother bear as a sign of respect, or maybe in an attempt to beg God for mercy. Because soon, the family realized that Yuravsky wasn't leading them out of the house. He was taking them to the basement. He brought them into a dark and mostly bare storage room and told them to wait while the guard stood outside. Nicholas tried to stay positive and keep his family's spirits up, but it seemed like he knew what was coming. But then, a few minutes later, the sound of a truck engine in the courtyard rattled the basement window. It seemed like maybe they really were getting out of there. In reality, Yuravsky only wanted the sound of the engine to mask the impending gunfire. Yuravsky returned to the basement and this time, he had the guards follow him into the room. Nicholas felt the tension in the air. He asked Yuravsky what was about to happen. In response, Yuravsky pulled out a sheet of paper from his pocket. Then he began reading it. Yuravsky recited a script informing the Romanovs of their ordered executions. He said it was the will of the revolution. Moments later, Yuravsky drew his revolver, aimed it at Nicholas, and shot him in the chest. The 50-year-old Tsar collapsed before dying. Then the room exploded into chaos. Panic screams filled the air as Alexandra tried to reach Nicholas and her children tried to reach her. Several guards began firing aimlessly in the dark, filling the room with thick smoke. Bullets ricocheted off the walls as the family and their staff ducked for cover. For all the thought he put into recruiting his team of assassins, Yuravsky had failed to actually train them. As pandemonium played out around them, they had no idea how to subdue and kill their targets. They just kept firing and soon 46-year-old Alexandra was hit. She collapsed to the floor and died just moments after her husband. The smoke was so thick by then the guards couldn't see anything, but the family's screams and cries had stopped. The guards believed that was the end of it. One of them opened the door and they tumbled out into the hallway, coughing and gasping for air. Once they all caught their breath, they noticed something, a sound from inside the room. People were still alive. Their pained moans revealed a harsh reality. This night was far from over. The guards went back inside and realized that all five Romanov children and their four staff members were writhing in agony. No one had been shot cleanly. The guards had prioritized killing Nicholas and Alexandra first, but after that they couldn't see through all the smoke their own guns produced. With just a few bullets left, the guards had no idea how to finish what they'd started. To make matters worse, some of them had drunk alcohol before the killing started. So between their panic and drunkenness, they were at a loss. Until finally, someone said they should use their bayonets. Acting quickly, the guards rushed their victims and stabbed them repeatedly. They were so disoriented they still couldn't get a clean kill. Some of them dropped their bayonets and used the butts of their guns to beat their victims to death. Nearly 20 minutes went by as the Romanov children and their loyal staff were brutally maimed and tortured. Sadly, the girls got at the worst. That wasn't entirely because the guards. The reason why they couldn't fatally wound any of the girls was because of the jewels they'd sewn into their clothes, which splunted their blows. The guards were exhausted by the time most of their victims were finally dead. Even then, some of the children were still clinging to life. At that point, the guards used the last of their bullets to put them out of their misery. That was all said and done. The room was covered in gunpowder, bullet holes, and blood. Some of the guards stepped outside again and vomited. They couldn't believe what they'd just done. And if anyone learned the truth, it would be a stain on Russian history forever. So Yuravsky told his men to gather themselves and prepare to hide the bodies. First, Yuravsky methodically checked each body to confirm they were all dead. Then he told the men to grab the corpses and haul them through the basement and into the truck in the courtyard. Once the truck was loaded, they made their way into the Kaptayaki Forest where they planned to dump all the bodies into a mine shaft. But the truck was so weighed down that what was only a nine-mile drive took hours. And that was just the beginning of their problems. Because when they finally got to their destination, they realized the supposed mine shaft was actually just a hole about eight feet deep. And by then, the guards were absolutely exhausted, so they tried fitting all the bodies inside anyway. But first, they stripped the family of all their clothes. That's when the guards discovered the jewels sewn into Alexandra and the girls' garments. Most sources agree the men pocketed the riches for themselves. And that wasn't the only way they disrespected the family they'd just tortured and executed. Despite the guards' best efforts, the bodies wouldn't all fit inside the hole. Yuravsky was worried that local peasants would find them, so he told his men to put all the bodies back inside the truck. They would come back the following day to try and find another spot. The next day, they planned to drive further into the forest. The truck still kept getting stuck, so they only made it about ten miles, just one mile further than before. At that point, Yuravsky was sick of all the back and forth, so he told his men to get out, dig shallow graves where they stood, and leave the bodies there. Before covering the graves, the men poured a quick lime over the bodies to conceal the smell. After that, they covered the soil with wooden planks, but they still weren't done. Yuravsky thought that if the bodies were all buried in the same spot, they'd be easier to identify if anyone found them later. So he and his men brought two of the children a little further, then burned them before leaving their charred remains in another set of shallow graves. The whole process was far from the stealth mission Yuravsky had envisioned. On top of all that, they now had to return to the Ipotev house to scrub the basement and get rid of the evidence. Once that was done, the Bolsheviks sent a telegram to Moscow, where Vladimir Lenin had taken power. They said that only Tsar Nicholas had been executed and that the rest of the Romanov family was in a safe location. Of course, Lenin knew the full truth, but this was the narrative the Bolsheviks had agreed on. They didn't want the people of Russia to know they'd mercilessly executed women and children, too. For the next two weeks, the story circulated around Russia, and during that time, around July 25, 1918, the anti-Bolshevik White Army marched on to Yakutirinburg with plans to rescue the Romanovs. By now, they'd heard that Nicholas was dead, but they believed the rest of the family was still alive. Despite the rumors that they'd been moved, the Whites thought they might still be at the Ipotev house. They marched over to the house and tore down the fence the Bolsheviks had put up, and that's when they realized they were too late. There was no sign of the family anywhere. Whether unfolding now or etched into American history, revealing not just what happened, but how it forever changed our society. Serial killers who terrorized cities, unsolved mysteries that keep detectives up at night, and investigations that changed the way we think about justice. Each case unfolds across multiple episodes, released every Tuesday through Thursday, from the first sign that something was wrong to the moment the truth came out, or didn't. These are the stories behind the headlines. Listen to and follow America's Most Infamous Crimes Tuesday through Thursday on Apple Podcasts. Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Around July 25th, 1918, the anti-Bolshevik White Army marched into Yakitirinburg with plans to rescue the Romanovs. But when they arrived at the home where the family was being held, they found no sign of the Romanovs or their captors. When the Whites went down to the basement, they could tell the room had been scrubbed, but bullet holes were still visible and some of the plaster was completely blasted through. Not only that, but there was a trail of blood leading down the hallway. Clearly, something violent had happened here. But at that point, they still believed Alexandra and her children may have been spared. They needed to find them before that changed. As word spread that the Romanovs were missing, a White Army officer came forward claiming he knew what happened. He said he'd been hiding in Yakitirinburg to keep an eye on the Bolsheviks. He'd been watching the city from a secret location inside the Koptyaki Forest, where the Bolsheviks had disposed of the Romanovs' bodies. The officer didn't know what exactly he'd witnessed, but he knew something suspicious had taken place in the early morning hours of July 17th. He'd heard the sound of a truck engine, which was odd considering how muddy it had been at the time. He also heard voices and what sounded like digging. The Whites led a group of peasants to that area of the forest following the officer's lead. There, they found scraps of charred clothing and scorched leather on the ground. They sifted through the items. And soon, someone spotted something that looked like metal. He picked it up, dusted it off, and his stomach dropped. It was a belt buckle with the Romanov double-headed eagle. It was solid proof that the Bolsheviks had done something to the family. They just didn't know what that was. For all they knew, the Bolsheviks had simply burned and disposed of Nicholas' belongings. But what about Alexandra and the kids? The White Army rushed back into town where they spoke with some of the local peasants. According to them, on the night in question, the roads had been blocked off, and there was smoke rising from the forest early in the morning. They also said they heard a truck engine. The Whites kept searching, but they didn't find any more clues in the forest or inside the house. And once the locals realized that the Whites didn't know what happened, rumors swirled. Without official answers, people made up stories of their own. One of the most popular theories was that all of the Romanovs had died, except one. People believed the youngest girl in Estasia had been spared and brought to an undisclosed location. Other versions were less hopeful. Newspapers around the world reported that the guards had done horrible things to Alexandra and the girls. While none of these claims were substantiated, some outlets reported that the family had been stabbed relentlessly with bayonets, which was true. Of course, the public had no way of knowing fact from fiction, but one thing was clear. Most people believed the Bolsheviks were lying about what happened, and the truth was far more grim. One group that seemed to recognize the power of rumors was none other than the White Army. After they failed to free the Romanovs, they needed a way to garner support. So while the Bolsheviks were fighting to regain control of Jakotirienburg, the Whites worked hard to promote the theory that Vladimir Lenin's foot soldiers had massacred the royal family. In February 1919, about seven months after the Romanovs were killed, the Whites brought in a former federal investigator and loyal monarchist to help investigate. His name was Nikolai Sokolov. Sokolov started by asking the town's folk questions. He wanted to know what the Bolsheviks had been up to in the last year, not just on the night of the presumed murders, but the entire time they held the Romanovs captive. Now that the Bolsheviks had lost their hold of Jakotirienburg, people felt more comfortable speaking to the Whites and sharing the full details of what they'd seen. And apparently there wasn't just suspicious activity in the Kaptayaki Forest on July 17th and 18th. According to witnesses, the Bolsheviks had regularly killed their enemies and disposed of their bodies there. This posed a challenge to Sokolov, who realized that even if he did find human remains, he couldn't be sure who they belonged to. Remember, this was long before forensic DNA technology was available. Still, Sokolov had to try. Some of the witnesses led him into the part of the forest where the White Army officer had seen suspicious activity. There, Sokolov made a groundbreaking discovery. About 10 miles into the forest, Sokolov stumbled upon what seemed to be a mineshaft. He climbed down into it and scuvered scraps of clothing and some small jewels, which must have belonged to royalty. But that wasn't all. He also found bone fragments which appeared human. And based on everything he'd seen, Sokolov formed a theory. He thought the entire Romanov family and their servants had been killed in the basement of the house. Then their bodies were burned and buried in the forest. Although Sokolov was correct, he knew it would be hard to convince people since he'd only found partial remains. So for days, he kept digging, looking for more proof. But after a few months, his work came to an abrupt stop. In July 1919, the Bolsheviks regained control of Yekaterinburg. Sokolov quickly stored everything he had in boxes and fled. He returned to France, where he'd taken refuge from the Bolsheviks, and shared his findings with a few trusted people. But by then, the Bolsheviks were successfully forming the Soviet Union, which meant there wasn't much Sokolov could do except store his evidence in a safe location. Many monarchists and other European royals were too afraid to speak out against the Soviets. But even though Sokolov had been forced into silence, there was someone else in Europe who kept the Romanov story alive in a major way. It all started in February 1920, almost two years after the Romanovs vanished, when a young woman in Berlin jumped off a bridge in an apparent attempt to take her own life. She landed in the Kanabalo and survived. Police rescued her from the water and took her to a mental health institution. But when she got there, she wouldn't tell anyone her name. In fact, she barely spoke at all for the next six months. When the woman did finally start talking, she still wouldn't share her name. But people noticed that she spoke German with a Russian accent. Staff and other patients also saw that she had scars all over her body. People wondered what kind of trauma she'd endured. And one woman, another patient named Clara, thought she knew the answer. Clara believed the mysterious woman was one of the Romanovs' daughters. Like everyone else in the world, Clara had heard rumors that one of the girls had survived. And Clara was convinced that the woman's scars were from the stab wounds she'd sustained in the basement before being rescued. She was so convinced of her theory that when she was released from the facility, she tracked down some high-ranking Russian expats and told them about it. Even though most people assumed Anastasia was the one who'd survived, Clara believed the woman was actually Tatyana, the second-oldest Romanov child. And pretty soon, former aristocrats and Russian royal guards came to see the woman in the hospital to see if it was true. They showed her photographs of Romanov relatives and asked if she recognized them. They also asked questions that only a true Romanov would know the answers to. A few of the people who visited the woman got any answers. Usually, she became upset when they showed her images or recalled certain memories and sometimes even hid under the covers to avoid talking to them. There was one person who got something out of her, though. A former guard to Nicholas' mother visited her a few times and showed the woman pictures of his former employer. The woman didn't respond to his questions, but one day after he left, she said to her nurses, quote, that gentleman has a photo of my grandmother. The nurses were shocked. News that one of the Romanovs might still be alive quickly spread. But soon, people realized just how much more was left to uncover. When word got around, someone new eventually came to visit the woman, Tatyana Romanovs, former lady in waiting. She took one look at the woman and said she was, quote, too short to be Tatyana. The woman responded, I never said I was Tatyana. When Nicholas' mother's former guard heard about this, he interpreted the woman's statement to mean that she wasn't Tatyana, but she was one of the Romanovs' daughters. He went back to the hospital with a new plan. Instead of asking her questions or showing her pictures, he wrote down all the Romanovs' daughters' names. He passed her the pen and paper. She crossed out every single name except one, Anastasia. With that, the story became an international sensation. Some people believe that the rumors were true and Anastasia had really survived. But others thought the woman was just an imposter trying to wedge her way into elite circles. When the woman was released from the hospital in 1922, she openly identified as Anastasia Romanovs. A pair of wealthy Russian expats took her in and for years afterward, she bounced between elite families, sometimes even staying in castles and attending lavish parties. At the same time, some of the Romanovs' relatives took issue with the woman's claims. They even brought the matter to court to ensure she never got any of the royal family's money. They had plenty of reasons to be skeptical, especially because between 1918 and 1928, over half a dozen women had come forward claiming to be one of the Romanovs' daughters. They were all exposed as imposters, and the woman in Berlin soon was too. In 1927, a German newspaper published a story that the woman who had started going by the name Anna Andersen was actually a factory worker from Poland named Franziska Szankowska. That report was probably a big reason why the court decided Anna wouldn't receive any of the Romanovs fortune. Anna's story mostly died after that, and in 1968 she moved to the United States with her new husband. But this wouldn't be the last time the world heard about her, because decades later someone would discover yet another reason to believe one of the Romanovs' daughters had lived. In 1979, during the later years of the Soviet Union, a pair of Yakitirinburg locals embarked on a secret unauthorized dig in the Koptyaki Forest. A geologist named Alexander Avdonin and a filmmaker named Geli Rabov had been researching and investigating the fate of the Romanovs for pretty much their whole lives. Over the years, the two of them had some breakthrough discoveries. One was the diary of Yakov Yorovsky, who wrote a detailed account of the night the Romanovs disappeared. The guard explained that the entire family and their staff had, in fact, been brutally murdered in the basement of the Epityev House and buried in the forest. This corroborated Nikolai Sokolov's theory, however, it didn't say where exactly the family was buried. Later, Sokolov himself offered the missing puzzle piece from beyond the grave. Alexander had obtained one of Sokolov's written accounts of a witness who said the Bolsheviks had placed wooden planks over the Romanovs' burial sites. By the spring of 1979, those wooden planks were still there and based on those. Alexander, Geli, and their team managed to locate the exact burial site. When the team dug up the spot, they uncovered three human skulls with bullet holes in them. Alexander and Geli took the skulls with them, but over the next year, they started to worry about what they'd done. Even though they'd obtained permits to dig, the Soviet government was still strongly opposed to even the slightest suggestion that the Romanovs family had been tortured and killed. Alexander and Geli couldn't find anyone willing to perform the necessary forensic tests. And soon, they were scared that if the government learned about what they'd found, they'd go to prison. Or worse, they'd disappear too. So just one year after finding the skulls, they put them back where they found them. Still in the box, they'd stored them in. More than a decade passed until Alexander and Geli finally felt safe enough to come forward again. In 1990, the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse and the country was finally ready to confront its past. So Alexander and Geli appealed to Russia's first ever democratically elected president, Boris Yeltsin, to try digging up the site again. And they told Yeltsin everything they knew, and he appointed an official team of archaeologists and forensic experts to dig through the Koptyaki Forest once more. This time, the team didn't just discover the box containing the three skulls. They also found six other sets of remains. Almost all of the bone fragments showed signs of bullet wounds, stabbing, or blunt force trauma. This was completely in line with the theory that the Romanovs had been killed in the Epitaph basement. And by 1994, forensic DNA analysis confirmed the fact it was the Romanovs. It was a historic moment, but there was a problem. Two bodies were missing. And between the family and their staff members, there should have been 11 bodies total, but there were only nine. Based on the size of the bones, they could tell they were missing two of the children, Alexei and one of the girls, either Maria or Anastasia. Investigators were stumps. And that's when someone asked a crucial question. What if Anna Anderson had been telling the truth? And that would explain at least one of the missing bodies. Anna had died back in 1984, but some of her tissue had been preserved. DNA experts compared it to the remains found in the forest. It was not a match. For people all over the world, the constant push and pull of this everlasting mystery was getting to be too much. Many wondered if the world would ever learn the full fate of the Romanovs. Years went by without any more answers. All much of the world had given up on ever learning the truth. There was one group of people who couldn't shake the feeling that investigators had missed something. And in 2007, they were proven right. That year, a group of amateur archaeologists was trudging through the Koptyaki Forest. They'd been doing this every summer for years, looking for the missing Romanov remains. And in July 2007, nine decades since the Romanovs were killed, the group stumbled upon a small hollow grave covered with nettles and brush. They started digging and pretty soon, they turned up bone fragments. The bones were just as badly damaged as the ones that had been found earlier. And when DNA experts compared the new sets of remains to the ones they already had, they confirmed the long-awaited truth. The remains belonged to Alexei and one of the girls. Almost a century later, the case was finally closed. The Romanovs would go down in history as symbols of a ruined empire and of a wound that never fully healed. But thanks to hope, imagination, and sheer dedication, one of the 20th century's greatest mysteries was finally solved. And that can bring us all some peace. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Carter Roy and this is Murder, True Crime Stories. Come back next time for the story of another murder and all the people it affected. Murder, True Crime Stories is a crime house original powered by PAVE Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media at Crime House on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review, and follow Murder, True Crime Stories wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. And to enhance your Murder, True Crime Stories listening experience, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad free. We'll be back on Tuesday. Murder, True Crime Stories is hosted by me, Carter Roy, and is a crime house original powered by PAVE Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Murder, True Crime Stories team, Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Natalie Pertzofsky, Laurie Maranelli, Sarah Camp, Sarah Tartiff, Cassidy Dillon, and Russell Nash. Thank you for listening. Thanks for listening to today's episode of Murder, True Crime Stories. Not sure what to listen to next? Check out America's Most Infamous Crimes hosted by Katie Ring. From serial killers to unsolved mysteries and game-changing investigations, each week, Katie takes on a notorious criminal case in American history. Listen to and follow America's Most Infamous Crimes now wherever you listen to podcasts.