This podcast details true crime cases.

It contains adult themes and may contain descriptions of violence.

It is not intended for children.

Listener discretion is advised. Thank you for joining me for today's episode of Once Upon a Crime.

We're in the last chapter of the series, Familiar Strangers.

And this is part two of a two-part episode.

So if you haven't listened to episode number 179 yet, you should

go back and start there. This week we'll pick up where we left off. The

Romanov family dynasty ended in 1917 when Bolshevik forces toppled the monarchy.

Zara Nicholas, Empress Alexandra, and their five children were held prisoner for 16 months, and then it was reported they had been executed in the basement of the

Ipatiev house in Ekateringberg. However, their bodies were never found. The Bolshevik party, led by Vladimir Lenin,

did not admit to executing the entire family,

but only took responsibility for the assassination

of Nicholas II.

Because of this, some believed that the rest of the Imperial family was alive, possibly

escaped and hiding somewhere.

This provided an opening for a number of people to come forward over the following months and years,

claiming to be one of the missing Romanovs. Most of these claimants were quickly denounced as

impostors. But one claimant would emerge in 1920 who was not so easily dismissed. A young

woman emerged in Germany who had enough similarities with the Grand Duchess

Anastasia Romanov that some believed she was the missing daughter of

Zar Nicholas II. Others would say she was a fraud. The debate would continue with many people

...