Eight months after the massacre, Nikolai Sokolov began his scrupulous investigation of the Romanov massacre and quickly went to the grave sites- the Four Brothers Mine and Pig's Meadow. At the Mine, he found charred bones, shattered jewels, a severed finger and more evidence that proved their murder. At Pig's Meadow, where only Alexei and Maria lay burned and buried in the bog, he actually stood over the burial site but did not realize it! For all that, his investigation held up by forensic standards and is considered very thorough. He carried away with him a box of grisly evidence- including this severed finger, long thought to be Alexandra's.
