Couldn't the sample have gotten switched or mixed up at the hospital?
This is the explaination of Penny Jenkins, who was responsible for Martha Jefferson Hospital's medical records, including blood and tissue samples. When asked of the possibility of 'substitution' of the tissue at the hospital, here was her reply:
"We have two separate backups. In 1979 when Dr. Shrum did surgery on Mrs. Manahan, we took slides of the tissue, in addition to preserving in paraffin the larger blocks of the excised tissue. Taking slides when doing surgery is routine, you take it, you look at it, and say, there is cancer, or it's not cancer, or it's an infection or whatever. We preserve these slides in one place and the paraffin wax in a totally different place.
"Furthermore, when we moved the tissue from storage back to the hospital in early 1993, Dr, Thomas Dudley, the assistant pathologist, cut some new slides from one of the blocks. We compared these new slides cut in 1993 with those slides cut in 1979 and they were identical. If someone had swapped them in storage during the last couple of years, they would not have matched. And the chance that anybody was able to get to both locations and switch both slides without access to specimen numbers is impossible."
(source: Massie, "The Romanovs: The Final Chapter")
What about how the hospital first claimed they had nothing in her name, then found it later. Isn't that suspicious?
No, the reason the hospital didn't find it right away was mainly because the person who originally asked for the sample gave the names "Anna Anderson" and "Mrs. Jack Manahan", but the sample was filed under the name "Anastasia Manahan" (her husband's real name was John, Jack was only a nickname, and it was under her name, not his, so this is why the computer searches originally gave no matches.)
(source: Klier and Mingay, "Quest for Anastasia")
But couldn't there have been some mistake? Aren't there some recent reports of errors in some tests?
In the days when the AA testing was done, there were only a few people who knew how to do it. They were the pioneers, and specialists who were very good at their work. The main scientists involved are still working today and have very highly regarded reputations in the scientific and legal communities. These days, there are a lot more DNA labs out there, and there are thousands of people working in them, some who are not as expert as they should be. There are even commercials inviting you to go to lab x downtown and get a DNA sample done of a hundred dollars. You can even have your dog's DNA tested via mail order. With all these new labs, some with questionable employees and procedures, there may be a mistake once in awhile. BUT the thing to consider and realize in the AA case is that, in addition to the high level of expertise and integrity of those involved, the tests were done in FOUR different labs- three for the intestines, one for the hair. All labs reached the same exact result. If one had 'goofed', one would not match the others. If they all goofed, none would match. It's impossible that they would all make the same random error. The tests were accurate, and the scientists involved will be the first to tell you there is no need to test them again, you will get the same result. If you have the money and the time and want to try to challenge it in court, go for it, but you will lose.
Personal letter from Dr. Terry Melton:
My response to you is the same that I give to everyone who questions the legitimacy of the Anderson results:
Multiple labs got the same results on different tissues (hair/intestinal tissues) at different times. Independent testing such as this is best practice in forensic testing, especially when the results are going to be scrutinized at the level of this case. It is highly unlikely that the same results would be obtained in different labs if the work was shoddy. More likely, the labs would have gotten different results that made no sense compared to each other.
The science that was used is basic, and the methods, while becoming more sensitive and streamlined since the time of the original tests, were and are designed to get at the most basic building blocks of human identity: the DNA sequence. The DNA sequence cannot change when the methods change. There is no more elemental level of inspection.
Conspiracy theories don't worry me. The weight of well-conceived and time-tested protocols carried out by laboratories with impeccable credentials and nothing to gain from either answer are behind all the results, which have been published in scientific, peer-reviewed literature.
I hope this helps.
Best wishes,
Terry Melton
So there you go. The samples couldn't have been switched or mixed up, and if there had been an error in any one of tests, they all wouldn't have matched. No switch, no mistakes. AA was not AN.
