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Plaster and decorative paper have been ripped away low and to the left of the door, exposing the inner structure of the wall. The resulting rubble lies in a heap on the floor along the baseboard. This damage is situated precisely where the historic record suggests that the lady-in-waiting, Anna Demidova, had struggled to avoid the thirty or more bayonet thrusts it took to end her life. The picture also shows large jagged rock sitting on the floor to the left of the rubble and about two feet out from the wall. One has to ask: What is a rock like that doing inside the building and how long after the murders was the picture taken? Was the rock used to cause any of the damage? Given enough time, a lot can happen to the evidence at an unsecured crime scene. |
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Twelve men picked up bayonets after firing their revolvers until they were empty. With even the simplest knowledge of arithmetic and handguns one would realize that means that anyone investigating the case will have to account for a minimum of seventy-two shots. In "Dead Men Do Tell Tales" the head of the American forensic team investigating the case, Dr. William Maples, stated that fourteen bullets had been found in the grave. Even considering the plaster damage evident in the photograph, no matter how long and how often one stares at the walls and the doors in that picture it is difficult to account for another fifty-eight bullets. |
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