Body of missing AGL Resources exec found in Mississippi River

NEW ORLEANS, La. - The New Orleans Police Department reported on the afternoon of March 9 that missing AGL Resources Inc. executive Douglas Schantz's body was found underneath a dock along the Mississippi River.
Police said he had all of his jewelry and credit cards, leading them to think his death was due to accidental drowning.
Authorities recovered the body fitting the general description of the executive missing since March 5 near where Schantz, 54, likely fell into the water, Assistant Superintendent Marlon Defillo of the New Orleans Police Department said on the afternoon of March 9, before the body was positively identified by the family.
Schantz went missing after leaving the Razoo Bar and Patio on Bourbon Street around 2 a.m. before walking along the Mississippi River near the steamboat Natchez, where he was last seen on video. Authorities said he had been drinking and appeared disoriented.
"The last video of Mr. Schantz is that, is when he was near the boat Natchez, walking on a two to three feet wide walkway near the river," New Orleans Police Chief Warren Riley said.
According to wwltv.com, the Web site of the Crescent City's CBS television affiliate, Riley said the video shows Schantz around 2:40 a.m.
"There's a continuous stream of video that shows him walking to the river, by himself, and at some point he got to the river but then goes out of the view of the video," said Alan Chapple, manager of corporate communications for AGL Resources.
New Orleans daily The Times-Picayune reported on the afternoon of March 9 that in the video, Schantz jumps a fence and walks under the Natchez's gangway to an area marked as restricted, where he then disappeared before his death.
Schantz was president of Sequent Energy Management, a unit of Atlanta-based AGL Resources. He was first reported missing when he didn’t meet his daughter for a flight home.
Schantz was in New Orleans to donate $25,000 to Tulane University, where his daughter is a student.

Police seek AGL exec who disappeared on Bourbon Street

NEW ORLEANS, La. - Police are searching the French Quarter in New Orleans and checking with businesses for surveillance videotapes of a Texas energy executive who disappeared after walking out of a Bourbon Street bar.
About 30 detectives are looking for 54-year-old Douglas Schantz, the top executive of an AGL Resources unit. He was last seen leaving the Razzoo Bar and Patio about 2 a.m. on March 5, where his exit was caught on video cameras.
Police say there has been no activity on his credit cards or cell phone.
Schantz is president of Houston-based Sequent Energy Management. He was in New Orleans to give Tulane University a $25,000 gift during a reception on March 4.
After the dinner, he was with colleagues on Bourbon Street for about two hours.
Mark Homestead, a senior vice president at Sequent, said Schantz did not have too much to drink and left the bar before the rest of the group.
He 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 on March 8.
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.
Police say his credit cards and ATM card have not been used.
“We are deeply concerned about Doug, and personnel from AGL Resources have been working around the clock with law enforcement agencies to determine Doug’s whereabouts,” said John Somerhalder, president and chief executive of Atlanta-based AGL.
AGL employees and Schantz’s family have been circulating flyers in the New Orleans French Quarter.
Sequent manages pipeline capacity for AGL and for Georgia gas marketers.