GMTplus7, your tone comes across as snark, which is unfortunate.
This is such a sad story. The details coming out sound like mental illness, probably coming out or being noticed in college. This evening the papers are mentioning that he was “off his medication.” There are reports that he took 6 years to finish due to multiple leaves from college. That means either disciplinary problems, academic problems, mental health problems, or financial problems. Or all of the above.