Almost 90 years ago, Russia's last tsar and his family were killed near the Siberian city of Yekaterinburg. On Friday, Russian prosecutors announced that they are re-opening a probe into the deaths of Tsar Nicholas II and his family.

According to news reports, the inquiry has been prompted by a discovery of bones by a Yekaterinburg archeologist. The researcher, Sergei Pogorelov, claims that the bones that he found in a burned area in what is now Tuymen Oblast could be those of Prince Alexei, the hemophiliac heir to the throne, and a sister.

Some of the details of the find appear to match statements made about the circumstances of the Romanovs' execution by those who were involved. The tsar and his family were shot and their bodies doused in acid. News reports say vessels containing sulphuric acid were found near the two new sets of bones.

But once again, the find has many skeptics. I say once again because, when bones purportedly belonging to Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra and three other daughters were found and reburied in 1998, the Russian Orthodox Church doubted their authenticity. (British scientists who did DNA testing on those bones felt that it was highly likely that they were those of the Romanovs, but didn't agree on which of the four girls they were.) According to a quote in an ABC News story, the Church, which canonized the royal family as martyrs seven years ago, doubts the authenticity of the latest find.

The deaths of the Romanovs has always been surrounded by controversy, and many, many books have been written on them (The Last Tsar, by Edvard Radzinsky, is one that I have read). Before the first set of bones were found, several women spent much of the twentieth century claiming to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia, and told tales of having escaped execution. In 1997, the Walt Disney Company released an animated movie, "Anastasia", that had both the grand duchess and her sister Maria escaping. More escape stories circulated in 1998, when two sets of remains were found missing from the discovery of the first bones.

Will the new discovery finally put the story of the Romanovs to rest? We'll have to wait and see.