Keep in mind that JT was the one who absolutely rubbished the idea that the Laundries would participate in the search for BL. Early the next day the Laundries were assisting in the search. (In fact, folks on this board were in the midst of musing about what a giant liar Bertolino was, and how ridiculous his suggestion was that the Laundries might actually be asked to help in the search, when we received reports that the Laundries were indeed assisting in the search. That was quite the moment.)
In that article (linked in the quoted comment) JT is making an assumption. "Please keep in mind that NPPD was an assisting agency until Tuesday night September 14th," he wrote. "I’m confident that if that were true, the information would have been relayed."
So JT is claiming its not true simply because he didn't know about it. That is exactly what he did with the search info.
I'm pretty sure Bertolino is not lying about this. Somehow, somewhere, the info he provided, that Brian went missing on the 13th, seems to have fallen through the cracks.