I have a difficult time squaring a first time homicide offender (if this is the first homicide he has been arrested for) doing so during his very first semester of a PhD. I understand the speculation that he wanted to see if he could "commit a perfect murder" or get away with murder, but I feel like kind of goal or desire would be something BK would be more interested in continuing to learn about during his PhD studies, rather than doing immediately. PhD coursework comes first, then oral / comprehensive exams, and then dissertation / original research. If he was a third or fourth year PhD candidate, I could see this type of motive fitting more into his academic progress. He was literally just starting out. For these reasons, if he is the culprit, I suspect he was triggered in some way to commit the murders and acted rashly.
I know he put together an original survey at DeSales that was distributed on Reddit, but according to his professor there, the research never actually took shape and answers were not used as part of his MA thesis / capstone. From her interview:
Bolger said, Bryan didn't even end up using any of the data he gleaned from the questionnaire, 'you aren't going to find it anywhere.' Instead, she said, because he ran out of time, 'his graduate thesis was a narrative one based on the information.' (
DailyMail is the source, unfortunately). I have a hard time believing that because the survey failed / didn't garner enough responses to include in his project directly, he decided to take matters into his own hands. It seems more likely to me that this would be something he reattempted -- through official channels -- during his PhD. All IMO.