Forensic Science Case Study

https://intervisualtechnology.us/uploads/PDFs/Fore…

Read pages 383-398

* For full points, address the key concepts, make specific comments on

the example in the case study, and add your own insightful comments.

Your response also needs to include factual support from the assigned

reading.

Review the Case Study and explain what forensic anthropology
techniques were used for identification. Submit as a word document or
PDF.

The Romanovs (1918)

On July 16, 1918, the last royal family of Russia?Tsar Nicholas II,
his wife Alexandra, four daughters, one son, and their servants?died at
the hands of a firing squad (Figure 13-25). Bolshevik Jacob Yurosky, who
commanded the death squad, boasted that the world would never know what
had happened to the royal family. That was true for the next 75 years,
until a team of specialists including Michael Baden, William Maples, and
forensic odontologist Lowell Levine examined the skeletons discovered
in a shallow grave outside of Ekaterinburg, Russia (Figure 13-26). The
team was able to determine the age and sex of all nine skeletons. Five
were identified as females and four as males. The skulls had all been
crushed, making identification difficult. The bones and teeth helped.
One female had poor dental work and calcification of knee joints,
indicating a person who had spent time scrubbing floors and doing manual
labor. One male skeleton was mature, probably the remains of the royal
family physician, Dr. Botkin. The recovered dental plate and skull
similarities to a photograph provided evidence to the doctor?s identity.
Expensive dental repairs and dental records identified the rest of the
royal party. Because some of the leg bones were crushed, height
estimations were calculated using arm length. The remains of Anastasia
and Alexei, who were 17 and 14, respectively, were not found.