[The forensic medical identification of the members of the Demidov family]

The objective of the present study was to elucidate the genetic profiles of the biological materials taken from four graves in the Demidov family vault in order to establish kinship between its members. According to the archival documents, two graves contained the remains of Pyotr Grigor'evich Demidov, an adjutant-general for the emperor Aleksandr II, and his wife Elizaveta Nikolaevna Demidova (Bezobrazova). Also, it was supposed that two other graves contained the remains of Grigory Petrovich Demidov and Ekaterina Petrovna Demidova (married name princess Kudasheva), the son and the daughter of P.G. Demidov and E.N. Demidova. The bodies remained in the half-ruined crypt during approximately 150 years under conditions of enhanced humidity and seasonal temperature fluctuations which made their bone tissue virtually unsuitable for the genetic analysis. Genotyping was performed with the use of standard AmpF/STR Identifiler-TM and AmpF/STR Yfiler-TM kits ("Applied Biosystems", USA). As a result of the study, the skeletal remains of the boy from grave No2 were identified as actually belonging to the son of P.G. Demidov and E.N. Demidova with a probability of no less than 99.999999998%. whereas the girl buried in grave No4, was not the daughter of these parents.