© WikipediaAlexander III with his wife and their children.
Forensic experts told Russian media the process is likely to start in the second half of November 2015. However, opening the vault of the Russian Tsar who died back in 1894 may be quite complicated. "It [the burial vault] contains not only a coffin with the Tsar's body but also a separate grave with the tsar's embalmed vital organs," Marina Logunova, senior research associate at the St. Petersburg State History Museum, told TASS. Also Alexander III's impressive height - 1.93 meters - could create additional problems, Logunova added. "It can be assumed that the burial vault is larger than the tombstone, and that can create risks for the nearby graves...."
If the experts prove the remains found in Ekaterinburg are genuine and related to Alexander III, then one more riddle of the slain Tsar family would be solved. At that point, all seven members of the Tsar's family will be buried together.
Nicholas II, his wife and five children, including his only son and heir, Alexey, were killed in 1918 following the 1917 Revolution. Their bodies were thrown down a mine shaft and then quickly buried somewhere near Ekaterinburg in the Urals.
For almost a century no one knew where exactly the Tsar family was buried. However, in 1991 the remains of Nicholas II, his wife and three daughters were discovered in a mass grave near Ekaterinburg. Two years later, in 1993, investigators opened a case into the murder of the Romanov family to identify the suspected remains of the Tsar's family and their retinue. The case was closed in 1998 "owing to the deaths of the perpetrators of the crime."
However, the case was re-opened in 2007 when new evidence appeared - the remains of Nicholas II's last two children were discovered - daughter Maria and his only son Aleksey who suffered from hemophilia. Though the Church has declared Nicholas II, his wife and three daughters as saints, it still won't recognize the identities of Alexey and Maria.
Something odd here. First the "second half of 2015" began last June and the year is nearly gone now. Talk about missed deadlines! Also, there is not now and has never been any question but that Nicholas was a descendant of Alexander. No mystery there, the Romanovs were in power for something like 400 years all neatly documented.
How can opening a vault be "complicated?" It will work fine if enough people are in the crew, trust me.
It has already been proven that the remains "found" in Ekaterinburg are those of Nicholas and some of his family members. What "riddle" will be solved?
Lastly, who cares what "the church" has to say about any of this?