Anna Stepanovna Demidova was born on 26 January, 1878. Demidova, whose nickname was “Nyuta,” was a tall, statuesque blonde. She was the daughter of Stepan Demidov, a well-off merchant from Cherepovets and a member of the Cherepovets City Duma. She graduated from the Yaroslavl Institute for Maids with a teaching certificate. She was a good friend of Elizaveta Ersberg, a parlormaid at the court, and was once engaged to Ersberg's brother Nikolai. About 1905 Ersberg secured her friend a position at the court as a parlormaid. In his memoirs, the Romanov children’s English tutor, Charles Sydney Gibbes, described Demidova as “of a singularly timid and shrinking disposition.”

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Aloise (Alexei) Yegorovich Trupp was born on April 8, 1856. He was the Head Footman in the household of Tsar Nicholas. Trupp was born in Vitebsk Governorate, Russian Empire, now Madona Municipality, Latvia. He was a Roman Catholic.

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Ivan Mikhailovich Kharitonov was born in 1872. He was the Head Cook at the court of Tsar Nicholas. Kharitonov’s wife and daughter followed him into exile at Tobolsk but did not join him when the Bolsheviks moved the prisoners to Ekaterinburg in the spring of 1918. Kharitonov's grandson, Professor Pyotr Multatuli, is a member of the project team who have contributed to the Romanov Royal Martyrs Project.

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Trupp, Kharitonov, and Demidova followed the Romanov family into exile to Tobolsk and to Ekaterinburg. As the group left from Tobolsk, Demidova told Gibbes, “I am so frightened of the Bolsheviks, Mr. Gibbes. I don't know what they will do to us.” They were all murdered with the Imperial family by the Bolsheviks on July 17, 1918 at Ekaterinburg.