wife. The next morning Rasputin's disappearance was reported by his daughter to Vyrubova. When Vyrubova spoke of it to the Empress, Alexandra pointed out that Irina Aleksandrovna Romanova was absent from Petrograd. An investigation followed and Prince Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitri were placed under house arrest in the Sergei Palace. The Tsarina had refused to meet the two but was told by Anna they could explain what had happened in a letter. Two days later Rasputin's body was found near Bolshoy Petrovsky Bridge. His body was taken to the Chesmensky Almshouse for autopsy. In the middle of the night, Vyrubova and the Tsarina brought some clothes to the almshouse. On 21 December Rasputin's body was taken in a zinc coffin from the Chesme Church to be buried in a secret location in a corner on the property of Vyrubova adjacent to the palace. The burial was attended by the Imperial couple with their daughters – the tsesarevich was too ill, Vyrubova, her maid, and a few of Rasputin's friends, as Colonel Loman and Lili Dehn. It is unclear if Maria Rasputin was there. The coffin with Rasputin was dug up and transported to the Saint Petersburg State Polytechnical University, and cremated in the cauldrons of the nearby boiler shop on 11 March 1917, without leaving a single trace. Later life Sick with measles, Anna Vyrubova was arrested on 21 March 1917 and underwent five months of prison in the Peter and Paul Fortress, which included a medical examination to prove her virginity. The interrogation on her political role started on 6 May. Vyrubova admitted she saw Rasputin once or twice a week but feigned a childish innocence. The investigator concluded that she was too naïve and unintelligent to have had any influence over the Tsarina. In Anna's own memoirs, she describes her perils in prison and her narrow escape from execution when, miraculously, she met several old friends of her father on a St. Petersburg street who helped her escape. She endured much hardship avoiding the Bolsheviks, and she was able to escape to Finland only in December 1920. Before leaving the Soviet Union, she became friends with the revolutionary writer Maxim Gorky, who urged her to write her memoirs; she followed his advice. She met with Zinaida Gippius, Alexander Blok and Valery Bryusov. Her memories of life at court provided rare descriptions of the home life of the