Body found near spot where exec disappeared

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

NEW ORLEANS -- A Texas-based nonprofit group that has been searching for a missing oil executive in New Orleans has found a body.

Tim Miller, president and founder of Texas Equusearch, said the unidentified body was found Tuesday in the Mississippi River, "very, very near" the spot where 54-year-old Douglas Schantz, president of Houston-based Sequent Energy Management, was last spotted on a security video Friday morning. Sequent Energy is a division of Atlanta-based AGL Management.

It was not known if the body was that of Schantz. Miller said Schantz's brother was to help with the identification.

Police said they believe Schantz may have fallen into the Mississippi River about a half-hour after leaving a Bourbon Street bar.

A camera captured an image of Schantz on a 2- to 3-foot wide gangplank near a riverboat at 2:40 a.m., said Police Chief Warren Riley. Then Schantz disappeared from view.

"We know he had been drinking and appeared disoriented," Riley said, according to the New Orleans Times Picayune.

Schantz, 54, had traveled New Orleans to make a donation to Tulane University on Thursday night.

His company on Monday increased the reward for information leading to Schantz to $25,000, according to the Times-Picayune.

Schantz didn’t make his scheduled flight back to Houston, and hasn’t called or e-mailed colleagues or his family, company spokeswoman Tami Gerke said Monday.

Houston police say he also never made it back to his hotel, which is within walking distance of where he was last seen on Bourbon Street. Video cameras show him leaving Razzoo Bar and Patio at 2 a.m.

Police say his credit cards and ATM card have not been used.

Sequent manages pipeline capacity for AGL and for Georgia gas marketers.

AJC staff writer Margaret Newkirk and the Associated Press contributed to this article.