Seems to me the men, young or old, could tell the difference between the aging bodies of Empress Alexandra and Demidova to that of the youthful bodies of any of the G D Duchess, be they slim or carrying some "baby fat" as some claim GD Anastasia was.
We do not kow exactly where Yurovsky was during these events.  He makes his statement read  as though he was right there for the buriel of the two and the nine.  He tells us the graves were near each other,  so,  if we're to go by what he tells us,  then,  all he had to do was walk back and forth to make sure the right people were buried where he wanted them buried.
Why or when Yurovsky realized that one of the two bodies was not Alexandra, Â I don't know. Â Just as I don't know why he thought the one buried with Alexei was Demidova. Â The missing body isn't Demidova. Â The missing body is one of the Grand Duchesses.
Yes, Â he does tell us that the events of the evening didn't go according as he had hoped. Â In fact, Â he wasn't even suppose to be part of the burial group in the first place.
The best liers are the ones who can stay close to the truth because lies are harder to remember.
There is talk about Ermakove being drunk. Â For all I know, Â since it was pay day, Â the entire group, including Yurovsky, may have had one to many.... The thought of having to kill eleven people, some very pretty and young, Â might have caused hestitation in all the shooters and a couple of drinks may have been downed to build up their courage. Â As it was, several guards announced they wouldn't shoot anyone that night... Â
Too much drinking would explain why both Yurovsky and his friend fell off the horses and each were hurt returning to Ekaterinburg.
And,  it bothers me that Yurovsky admits that he read Sokolov's report before he made his second testimony which gave him the opportunity to squeeze in a couple of  additional points left out in the earlier testimony of 1920. He also tells us that he looked at photographs of the buriel area which Ermakov and his buddies had taken.
AGRBear