A Russian Jigsaw Puzzle

Nine bodies of the infamous Romanov family, murdered by the Bolshevisks, were found in 1991. Two bodies, however, remained missing. For years professionals have searched for the two missing members of the Russian royal family. The Bolsheviks explained their strategy for burying the two seperately: they hoped to throw the Russians off the trail of the remains so that the people could not use the bodies as a rallying point against the Bolshevik regime. In this, they succeeded.

Years later, however, the bodies of the Romanovs remained missing and the legends of their reign had grown to gargantuan proportions. Thus, the search continued. Finally, it seems that the mystery was solved by amateur sleuths who found bodies (presumed to be the Romanovs: Alexsei and Maria) only 210 feet away from the other burial site. Why did everyone miss what was right under their noses?

I applaud these amatuers´ability to change approaches and look at the puzzle in a new way. They realized, astonishingly enough, that the killers themselves (proud of their accomplishment) wrote that the two bodies were buried nearby. So they just started to search in the area. They found them. After all of the crazy in-depth investigations, the amateurs won the prize. Why? Because they stepped back and looked at the available facts.

I personally think we could all take a page out of their book.