Romanov Forensic Reconstructions: Skeleton #6

Which Romanov daughter is this? The first Romanov gravesite was excavated in 1991. To confirm the identity of the Romanov Family, who disappeared while under Bolshevik house arrest in 1918, DNA was taken and forensic reconstructions of the bodies were made. It turned out that one daughter was missing - but they weren't sure who. This is the reconstruction of what investigators called Skeleton #6. They confirmed it was either Anastasia OR Maria Romanov.

However, in 2007, investigators announced that they had discovered two additional skeletons, separated from the original gravesite. This site contained the body of the son Alexei, and another unidentified Romanov daughter. So now, all the bodies are accounted for. Yet the debate still rages about who Skeleton #6 belongs to.

The Russians firmly believe that Skeleton Number 6 belongs to Anastasia, but the controversy is still raging. Here are my re-creations of this forensic model, with comparisons to Anastasia and Maria, including the different hairstyles they often wore. While I’m not a forensic scientist, this one to me is the spitting image of Anastasia, but I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Forensic reconstruction by Dr. Sergey Nitkin, the Russian Medical Examiner. Public Domain of the United States, CC 3.0.

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[diego_fe]

Yea thats Anastasia 100% she looked alot like her mother

[Tawadeb]

Poor family. Its horrendous how they were murdered

[riveranicole]

Anastasia's height was 5'2 (157 cm), Maria was much taller. Judging by the height, these remains belong to Anastasia

[a.walters]

The Romanov women/girls were all so beautiful, educated and well raised. It’s a catastrophic loss of innocence and potential.

[rosesilveira]

What a travesty. They were so beautiful, innocent & young.

[richardtofts]

Anastasia. When you've looked at so many photos of OTMA over the years, it's almost like recognising your own family

[kestrelcoursayre]

Positively Anastasia. Rest in Peace Romanov family.

[ashleyleonard]

Maria was known to have higher set cheekbones and a wider/softer face. This is definitely Anastasia sadly.

[gussiejives]

Based on the length of the chin and the shallower cheekbones, I’d agree that it’s Anastasia.

[rosalindfranklin]

Anastasia, I'm sorry to say. Looks like we were looking for the wrong person the entire time 😔

[jarjarbinks]

Whether Maria or Anastasia, I just hope that one day soon the Russian Orthodox Church will finally let the last two skeletons be buried in peace with the rest of The Romanovs.

It always makes me emotional whenever I see pictures of OTMA and Alexei. They were very beautiful people. And despite whatever faults their father and mother had, the family and those loyal to them in the end did not deserve such cruelty. It's really tragic. May The Romanovs forever Rest In Peace...
😔🌹❤️

[princess]

Their daughters were absolutely beautiful, just gorgeous. Tragic what happened to them.

[williammorris]

Anastasia. Maria was an image of her grandfather.

[rhizomove]

Anastasia. She was so beautiful. Such a sad story for those girls.

[laken]

Remember that some of the staff were murdered too.

[jordyn_gc]

Looks more like Anastasia, Maria and Anastasia do look similar though so I imagine it would be difficult to identify them

[gailc.]

This is the same comment I put on the full video, I'm only copy pasting it because I am curious what people think.
I agree the reconstruction looks more like Anastasia, but I still think it was Maria. According to the book The Family Romanov by Candace Fleming, all of the skeletons were too tall to be Anastasia and furthermore, "all the other female bones showed signs of 'completed growth'. But Anastasia was just seventeen at the time of the murders. Her bones would have still been growing." As for the first point, yes, Anastasia could have grown some in captivity, but by age fifteen, females tend to be at or close to their adult height, and it is accepted that Anastasia was the shortest sister. I think it's likely the remains were indeed too tall to have been hers. On a different note, skeleton 6 was proven to be a carrier of hemophilia. Now, hemophilia carriers were not always symptomatic, but I believe Maria was. Symptomatic carriers of hemophilia might, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine, "bruise easily, bleed more with surgeries and dental work, have frequent nosebleeds, [and] have heavy menstrual bleeding". Maria's menstrual periods were known to be severe and to bother her significantly, and she hemorrhaged in 1914 during a surgery to remove her tonsils. Granted, her aunt, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, believed all of the sisters were symptomatic carriers, but I've seen no evidence of any other sister having experiences like this. As for the reconstruction, it does more closely resemble Anastasia, but as the video says, all four sisters looked very similar, and it does closely resemble Maria as well. And as the reconstruction of Tatiana showed, forensic reconstructions are not perfect, and a reconstruction can look noticeably different from how the individual looked in life. I find it completely believable that small discrepancies led to Maria's reconstruction looking much more like her younger sister. Overall, I've just seen so much evidence that skeleton 6 was Maria as opposed to Anastasia, but if anyone else has other arguments, I'd be very interested to hear them.
Just one addition because really, I'm curious: if you think it's Anastasia, why? Please tell me the arguments you have for it being Anastasia. I'm not asking to try to get into a fight or anything, I just really do not understand why so many people say it was Anastasia and want to know.

[dianegron]

Wow! Definitely Anastasia. Eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows.. bone structure.

[richardtofts]

If you look at the ' floating head' shot that the children set up with a black fabric between two chairs, when they had all their heads shaved ( to help recovery from illness ) you get a really good idea of skull shape. They are very distinctive.

[paulinabecker]

Definitely Anastasia. Maria was famous in the family for her huge eyes "Maria's saucers".