The official story of murder-suicide was unchallenged until just after the Second World War. In 1946, occupying Soviet troops, perhaps hoping to loot the jewels and other valuable items they presumed were interred within, dislodged the granite plate covering the grave and broke into Vetsera's coffin. This was not discovered until 1955, when the Red Army withdrew from Austria. When the fathers of the monastery repaired the grave, they saw a small skeleton inside the damaged copper coffin. They observed the skull, which seemed to have no bullet holes in it.