Having just watched the movie today I feel like I can participate with some input. So, there's a lot of things to cover to try and discuss this topic - and this is based solely on the film / I haven't read up on the actual Robert Durst yet.
In the beginning of the movie David is clearly the more down-to-earth Marks son. He's resistant to join his father's business, moves to Vermont for a-to quote the movie-"from the ground" type of lifestyle, and married a girl that wasn't from the world that he was from. He was free spirited, rebellious, and making a path of his own in his life.
Now, we know that David has issues such as talking to himself and extreme anger & aggression. His issues most definitely began when he witnessed his mother's suicide, but continued on through his life from his father. It's clear that his father manipulated him and his emotions throughout the film and I believe that's what caused David's downward spiral.
When David married Katie, he obviously loved her and wanted to make her as happy as possible. When David's Dad pays a visit to him & Katie in Vermont, he speaks to David about giving Katie "everything that she wants," and convinces David that Katie is simply playing a long and doesn't actually want the type of life that they built together. Obviously Katie was totally in her element with David in Vermont, but Mr. Marks caused David to doubt that when he made David feel badly about the life he was living. He manipulated David and convinced him that Katie was unhappy, so David uprooted them and went to New York to work for his father-just like his father wanted. He saw it as a way to give her everything she wanted because I'm sure he expected her to want it considering his last name and the "royalty" that comes with it.
In the scene where David, his brother, and Mr. Marks are discussing what to do about the book Katie mailed in to try and create a case against the Marks, Mr. Marks says "Why couldn't you have just given her what she wanted?" This made David believe even more that he wasn't making Katie happy and was failing at it. David's mother's death definitely made him sensitive toward women, and I think that David wanted nothing more than to make Katie happy, so when he started to believe otherwise he developed major aggression and anger toward the woman closest to him. His father's manipulation and constant verbal beatdowns made David believe he wasn't fulfilling his duties as a husband or heir. It manipulated David into carrying on in the family business, like his father wanted, and was destroying the marriage Mr. Marks never approved of in the first place.
So I believe the murder of Katie was caused by an uprising of aggression, mental issues, and constant manipulation. His father made him feel like no matter what he did, from starting his own life and his own small business to getting married to complying and joining the family business, he couldn't do anything right. Add on his suppressed aggression about his mother's suicide after all those years and he's not only got issues with women (because I'm sure her suicide was never explained, and his father probably made her out to seem like the bad guy when she was probably trying to escape the manipulation and abuse Mr. Marks was putting her through), but he held a lot of emotions, feelings, and problems down all while being beaten down by the words and manipulations of his father.
David lost control because he lost himself in trying to please everybody all the while never having any answers, closure, or openness for issues that happened to him.
As for the hair pulling scene, I feel like it was an inferior complex. He probably saw it as he does everything for her, he didn't even want her to go to medical school so he totally wasn't into the party, and when he was ready to go he felt she should follow in tow because he was "subsidizing her lifestyle." My only question is why her family wasn't more active when that happened.
So that's why I think David killed Katie.
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