DNA testing in Russia has proved that bones found in mineshafts in 1976 are in fact the bodies of the murdered Emperor Nicholas II and his Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna. Samples taken from the jaw and neck of the male remains have been compared to bloodstained clothing of Alexander II (Nicholas’ grandfather who was assassinated in 1881) and blood on a shirt worn by Nicholas during an attempt on his life in Japan in 1891. Results are still to come in to confirm the identity of two other children’s remains, found in 2007; it is suspected they are those of Alexei and Maria, two of the three youngest children of Nicholas and Alexandra.