Featured Articles

Sep 10, 2010

• Forecast & Analysis -
• Top News Stories -
• Financial -
• Releases -
• Weather

Foul Play Possible In Sequent Energy Exec's Disappearance-Police

Mar 08, 2010

By Susan Daker
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

HOUSTON (Dow Jones)--The disappearance of a Houston energy executive in New Orleans' French Quarter could have been the result of foul play, a high-ranking New Orleans Police Department official said Monday.

Douglas Schantz, 54, president of Sequent Energy Management, a subsidiary of AGL Resources Co. (AGL), went missing after he left Razzoo Bar & Patio, a raucous Bourbon Street club popular among tourists. He was last seen at 2 a.m. Friday.

Assistant superintendent Marlon Defillo of the New Orleans Police Department said that Schantz could have been the victim of a crime.

"We have been using a tremendous amount of resources," Defillo said. "As of this morning we have met negative results." The FBI and U.S. Marshals are assisting in the investigation.

Police surveillance cameras captured the last sighting of Schantz walking by himself in a blue blazer and white shirt carrying a goodie bag at the corner of Bourbon and Toulouse Streets, Defillo said.

Schantz has not reached out to his family or friends and his cell phones are dead.

"There is a total disconnect," Defillo said.

He was supposed to stay at the Royal Sonesta Hotel on Bourbon, about a block from where he was last seen.

The 54-year-old executive had been in town to give a donation to Tulane University Thursday and was to meet his daughter Friday at the New Orleans airport for an early morning flight back to Houston.

He had a meeting scheduled for Friday, said Alan Chapple, a spokesman for Sequent.

It is "uncharacteristic" of Schantz to miss his appointments, Defillo said

Schantz has been president of Sequent, a wholesale energy trading firm, since 2003. Its parent company, Atlanta-based AGL, is the largest natural gas distributor in the Southeast.

Schantz's family has asked the Texas Equusearch, a non-profit search and recovery team to help in the efforts to locate him. A team is schedule to leave Texas for New Orleans on Monday.

-By Susan Daker; Dow Jones Newswires; (713) 547-9208; susan.daker@dowjones.com