Does anyone here have a Ph.D. in the sciences? The one I am working on is in social sciences, which requires all coursework completed, comprehensives taken and passed, and half your dissertation written in the form of a proposal and approved by a committee. Many years ago I pursued a Humanities doctorate, which required all coursework taken and comprehensives passed.
I am assuming the sciences follow the same pattern as the social sciences, because approval would be necessary. I don't think most people would leave a sciences doctorate undone once they got to the stage of getting their research approved?
I am going to guess that his attorney is going to try for an insanity case and argue that a mental illness emerged in the last few years if the body is found and can be tied to BC, if only to pressure the family and prosecutors with a long trial. And, as I said, I worry about him going free. The Kyron Horman case brought me to Websleuths and haunts me. As does Casey Anthony and O.J. Simpson.
Mine is in social sciences too but I think the procedure is the same. It probably varies more by university than discipline. I think what you note is pretty standard. He would have had to have some idea if only preliminary for what his dissertation would be in order to advance to candidacy as well as pass comprehensive exams. People drop out when they fail comps or if they can't get motivated to do the dissertation. It is easy to delay real life by going back to school taking classes which is what I presume he did here-
IMO, he was never really serious about being a physicist - he wanted to live life as a student working out, sleeping late, playing video games and going on fetish sites all night - you can't very well do that if you have a 9-5 job. Once the real work came of devising a research project he bailed. His psyche probably deteriorated when he realized that this life was ending and he was not going to be a student anymore.