The Missing Bodies

[GrandDuchessIzabella]

billmcl2, thank you for this information. IMO, it doesn't really matter who it was with Alexei, just that they are all accounted for and are at peace now.
(However, if I had to choose, I would agree with the Americans that it was Anastasia. Just because their evidence seems to be the most convincing.)

[Kalafrana]

I have to admit that my instant reaction on reading the American conclusions was, 'Oh no, it would be Anastasia!!'

Ann

[billmcl2]

billmcl2, thank you for this information. IMO, it doesn't really matter who it was with Alexei, just that they are all accounted for and are at peace now.
(However, if I had to choose, I would agree with the Americans that it was Anastasia. Just because their evidence seems to be the most convincing.)

You're most welcome - I'm glad it was helpful.

I understand the feeling that the family should be left at peace but I guess I'm still too intrigued by the mysteries to let go of them!

[RomaFan96]

I would like to hear people's theories about what happened to the two bodies missing from the mass grave found in Pig's Meadow. (N.B. As to the identity of the missing bodies, I find the American forensic experts' arguments the most persuasive - that they belonged to Anastasia and Alexei.)

In the years after 1918, Yurovsky made several conflicting statements that one or two bodies had been burned and the remains buried in a separate, smaller grave. This grave has never been found, despite repeated searches. FOTR suggests that it may never in fact have existed: "Almost certainly, the answer to this conundrum [conflicting and contradictory evidence] is what is most obvious: the remains of Alexei and Anastasia - despite the continued efforts of the Russians to insist on her presence in the Koptyaki grave - cannot be found because they were never there, never burned" (p. 469). The authors do not, however, speculate as to where the missing bodies might have gone.

Do you agree with this conclusion, and if so, what do you think happened to the missing bodies? I am interested in theories that fit the existing facts (and common sense!).
 
One theory that has been offered, in this forum and elsewhere, is that these two bodies simply fell off the Fiat truck during the drive to the Four Brothers and were never recovered. I find this hard to believe, for a variety of reasons:

According to FOTR, there were at least three men from the Ipatiev House in the back of the truck during the drive. I think they would have noticed if two bodies fell out.

According to Helen of Serbia (see FOTR), the Bolsheviks were already searching for a missing grand duchess approximately four hours after the truck carrying the bodies left the Ipatiev House. Surely the first thing they would have done is to retrace their route!
 
Furthermore, it seems somewhat unlikely that anyone else could have come across the bodies in the meantime (for who else would have been awake in the early hours before dawn on July 17, and wandering along Koptyaki Road?). Even if this had happened, the person in question would not have had sufficient time (much less the right equipment along with him!) to bury the bodies right then and there.  
 
Finally, if the bodies were simply left there, undiscovered - the Whites took Ekaterinburg only eight days later, and would surely have found them (or traces of them) during the course of their investigation.  

There were people who saw the truck carrying the bodies to the forest on July 17th and several people in the nearby town saw the fire being kindled in the woods. But yes, like you said, it would have been impossible for anyone else to have buried the bodies, let alone seen them. Yurovsky instructed his men to guard the areas surrounding the forest and had it cordoned off. If anyone trespassed they would have been shot.