Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 20, 1994 TAG: 9403200104
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
The hospital was preparing to give tissue from a 1979 operation to Anna Anderson Manahan's estate for genetic testing to determine if she was the youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas II.
Manahan lived in Charlottesville from 1968 until her death in 1984. Her body was cremated.
The association wants a court order requiring tissue testing at two qualified laboratories to ensure scientific integrity, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in Charlottesville Circuit Court.
The purpose of the New York-based association is to protect the authenticity of the imperial family's line. Its president, Alexis Scherbatow, has said he wants the test to prove Manahan a fraud.
Marina B. Schweitzer of Great Falls, the granddaughter of the czar's doctor, wants the tissue to be tested in London and compared with DNA tests performed there on remains from the Romanovs' grave.
The Bolsheviks executed the Russian royal family on July 16, 1918.
Schweitzer's husband, Richard, requested the appointment of a Charlottesville lawyer as the administrator of Manahan's estate, and Judge Jay T. Swett appointed Edward H. Deets Jr. on Wednesday.
Deets sent a letter Thursday to the hospital saying he wanted to obtain tissue for testing, said Matthew B. Murray, the hospital's lawyer.
Also on Thursday, Swett ruled the association could not continue with an earlier petition for access to the tissue because it had been attached to a lawsuit filed and then dropped by Schweitzer.
Murray said the hospital is prepared to send the tissue to London, as requested by Deets and the executor of Manahan's estate, once the association's lawsuit "is disposed of."
"We are very disappointed to see this litigation continue," he said.
by CNB