Ay
Egyptologist Bob Brier suggested that Ay murdered Tutankhamun in order to usurp the throne, a claim which was based on X-ray examinations of the body done in 1968. He also alleged that Ankhesenamun and the Hittite prince she was about to marry were also murdered at his orders. This murder theory was not accepted by all scholars, and more detailed CT scans of the mummy undertaken by National Geographic (published in late 2005) suggested that Tutankhamun did not die from a blow to his head as Brier had theorized. The "National Geographic" forensic researchers instead presented a new theory that Tutankhamun died from an infection caused by a badly broken leg since he is often portrayed as walking with a cane due to spina bifida, a hereditary trait in his family on his father's side. The bone fragments found in Tutankhamun's skull were most likely the result of post-mortem damage caused by Howard Carter's initial examination of the boy king "because they show no evidence of being inundated with the embalming fluid used to preserve the pharaoh for the afterlife". However, Brier has stated that the bone fragment in the skull is not relevant to the issue of whether Tutankhamun was murdered, acknowledging that it was likely caused by the embalmers. The evidence Brier presents for the murder is a dark spot on the base of the skull, indicating a blow to the head. Dr. Gerald Irwin agrees with Brier on this point.
Rakni's Mound
Lorange was told by locals that the king had been buried in a stone chamber between two white horses, with logs piled on each other above. In fact he did find the remains of a horse, which gave off such a stench that it was still remembered in the 1940s and 1950s. However, the horse was above the top layer of logs, not below, and the story that a worker died from the smell was probably inspired by the reports about the excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb. The stone chamber may have been inspired by the pavilion built on the mound by Johan Koren. In 1927, Jan Petersen wrote that there was a legend in the village that King Rakni was buried in the mound in full armour, with a white horse, after being killed in a battle in the 7th century, and that warriors were buried in smaller mounds surrounding his; there were in fact originally many small mounds around the large one.