After months of groping, the enquiry commission undertook methodical investigation in the forest. Every inch of ground was searched, scrutinised, examined, and soon the mine-shaft, the soil of the clearing, and the grass of the vicinity revealed their secret. Hundreds of articles and fragments, for the most part trodden into the ground, were discovered, identified, and classified by the court of enquiry. Amongst other things, they found in this way:
The buckle of the Czar’s belt, a fragment of his cap, the little portable frame containing the portrait of the Czarina—the photograph had disappeared—which the Czar always carried about him, etc.
The Czarina’s favourite ear-rings (one broken), pieces of her dress, the glass of her spectacles, recognisable by its special shape, etc.
The buckle of the Czarevitch’s belt, some buttons, and pieces of his cloak, etc.
A number of small articles belonging to the Grand-Duchesses: fragments of necklaces, shoes, buttons, hooks, press-buttons, etc.
Six metal corset busks. “Six”—a number which speaks for itself when the number of the female victims is remembered: the Czarina, the four Grand-Duchesses, and A. Demidova, the Czarina’s maid.
Dr. Botkin’s false teeth, fragments of his eyeglasses, buttons from his clothes, etc.
Finally charred bones and fragments of bones, partly destroyed by acid and occasionally bearing the mark of a sharp instrument or saw; revolver bullets—doubtless those which had remained embedded in the bodies—and a fairly large quantity of melted lead.
A pathetic list of relics, leaving, alas! no hope, and showing up the truth in all its brutality and horror. Commissary Voïkof was mistaken: the world now knows what they did with them.
Meanwhile the murderers were growing uneasy. The agents they had left at Ekaterinburg to set the enquiry on false trails kept them in touch with its progress. This they followed step by step. And when they understood finally that the truth was about to be revealed, that the whole world would soon know what had happened, they became afraid, and tried to throw on to others the responsibility for their crime. It was then that they accused the socialist-revolutionaries of being the authors of the crime and of having tried this means of compromising the Bolshevik party. In September, 1919, twenty-eight persons were arrested by them at Perm, falsely accused of having participated in the murder of the Imperial family, and tried. Five of them were condemned to death and executed.