More remains of Romanov family uncovered

MOSCOW, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has reopened a criminal investigation into the execution almost 90 years ago of Czar Nicholas II and his family.

Recent digging in the area where the royal family was buried has uncovered more remains, Itar-Tass reported. The prosecutor’s office will try to confirm the identifies of the two people buried there.

Nicholas II, the last ruler of the Romanov dynasty, and his wife, Czarina Alexandra, were shot with their four children July 17, 1918, at the house where they had been imprisoned after the Russian Revolution near Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains. The bodies were buried secretly.

One burial place was found in 1991. In late July, excavators found bone and tooth fragments and other objects in a second pit.

The bones are believed to be those of a young woman and a child. They have been tentatively identified as the remains of Grand Duchess Marie, who was 20 when she was killed, and the 14-year-old heir to the throne, Prince Alexei.