Would his friends or his girlfriend keep his desperate parents in the dark, if they knew or suspected he was hiding out with a friend or friends, going to K-Mart, etc.? For a whole month? Because I think they would know if he had a close enough friend who would take him in for weeks on end, no money, no job, no vehicle. JMO
Your question may have been rhetorical but ...
In some of the cases I've followed here on WS where teenagers are involved, some WSers have asked their own teenagers if they would confide in a parent/adult if faced with a serious issue about a friend and surprisingly (or not), the teens more frequently stated they would not share the info with the adult.
So ... who knows if the g/f and/or roommate would be forthcoming with info about BL, even while watching BL's suffering parents. In the roommates televised interview, he certainly gave me the impression that he held confidences with BL. Did he share them all with BL's parents and/or LE? Even if it would put the roommate in a bad light or be admitting some potentially illegal behavior?