Falsetti and France support
Maples' theory of "all of the skeletons appear to be too tall
to be Anastasia," as was reported by Dr. France in the Forensic
Conference last February in Reno, Nevada.
To us it seems rather obvious
that a legend still looms in the back of the public's mind. There's
a good chance that what the Americans did know about this case,
previous to being assigned to work on it, probably came from the
public interest story of Anna Anderson. Legend has no place in science,
the fact is that Anna Anderson's DNA testing did not produce a match.
It is our opinion that, for
different reasons, both the Americans and the Russians are guilty
of letting their pride get in the way of a solid answer.
In winter,
1917-1918, standing next to Olga in a photograph, Anastasia
is at least 2-3 inches shorter. She cannot have been, then,
at the time of the murder, anything more than five-one or five
two; thus, far too short to fit any of the skeletal remains
found.
~Greg King~
This
question of Anastasia's height is the only grounded opposition
we seem to get from the people that view this site. Dr. William
Maples did extrapolate each of the skeletons to try to determine
each height at the time of death, however we must remember that
the scientists did not have complete and in-tact remains to
test, and these estimations are not 100% reliable.
~Lishka~
According to Maples' book,
Dead Men Do Tell Tales, he reports the following height estimations
to work off of:
No. 5 was extrapolated at just over 5 foot 7½ inches
No. 6 was extrapolated at a little over 5 foot 5½ inches
The actual heights of the girls
at the time of the family's murders is nearly impossible to determine,
at best our work is merely guesstimates based upon height differentiation.
The best we can come up with are averages. The following is one
of the pictures we used as a basic guide. Height differences are
proportioned by measuring from the bottom of each line. Olga and
Maria appeared to be the same heights. There are of course hazards
with using these types of photos.. we don't know if the girls are
all standing up straight, Ana's head is a little tilted, plus this
picture was taken in 1917, more than a year before their deaths.
~Anastasia, Tatiana, Olga, & Maria in Tsarskoe
Selo, 1917~
As a basis we
will use Nicholas II's height, he was recorded at 5 feet 6 inches
tall.
Olga appeared
to be one to two inches shorter than her father. We placed her height
around 5 feet 4 - 5 inches.
Tatiana was
the tallest of her sisters, and she appeared to be a good three
to four inches taller than Olga. We placed her height around 5 feet
7 - 9 inches.
Maria was tall,
but not the tallest, in fact here she and Olga are ranging the same
height. According to the Gibbes collection of photographs from the
spring of 1918 in Tobolsk, Maria had gained a couple of inches on
Olga, and was close to Tatiana's height, if not the same. We placed
her anywhere between 5 feet 6 - 8 inches.
Ana was definitely
the smallest. Here she appears to be at least three good inches
shorter than Olga. However, at the time of this picture above she
was 15, almost 16. Her internal development was no where near completed.
We guessed her height could have been around anywhere from 5 feet
1 - 3 inches.
This photograph of the Tsar
and three of his daughters was taken in the Crimea, 1913. Tatiana,
just 16 at that time, is next to her father, but a step behind Nicholas.
Yet the line that runs from the top of her forehead also graces
the top of Nicky's forehead. She had already matched his height,
and this is five years before the murders.
This said, have another look
at the six possibilties outlined before, and see how the heights
measure up.
