A fracture of the cranial base of the kind documented at Loch Borralie would have opened a pathway into the interior of the skull.

Whether this fracture was caused by a blow that was itself the cause of death, or whether it occurred immediately after death as part of a deliberate process, is not determinable from the evidence.

The second category of evidence was the cut marks on the endocranial surface — the inside of the skull.

These were parallel incisions made by a sharp tool, and their position on the interior surface of the cranium, rather than the exterior, is a critical observation.

Marks on the outside of a skull might reflect many different things, including perimortem violence, post-mortem butchery for reasons related to the skull as an object, or accidental damage.