NEW ORLEANS—The search continued Monday for a Houston energy executive who went missing in New Orleans last week.
Doug Schantz, president of Sequent Energy Management, was in New Orleans to make a donation to Tulane University, where his daughter is a senior.
But ever since he left Razzoo’s, a Bourbon Street club, around 2 a.m. Friday, no one has seen nor heard from him.
Sequent Energy on Monday announced a $25,000 reward for information that brings Schantz home safely, and New Orleans police said the FBI, U.S. Marshals and the U.S. Coast Guard have joined the investigation.
Armed with fliers, Schantz’s son and friends combed the French Quarter over the weekend, hoping a tourist or Bourbon Street employee might remember something.
The night he disappeared, Schantz, 54, had been out with five coworkers.
"On video surveillance, he took a right instead of a left, and that’s as far as we know," Schantz’s son, Michael, said.
The typically prompt exec was reported missing after he missed his flight home.
"[My sister] had an interview with Conoco-Phillips and he was supposed to pick up her bags at the Houston airport Friday morning, and he never showed," Michael Schantz said.
New Orleans police said there’s been no activity on the missing man’s cell phone or bank accounts since he vanished, and his hotel room appeared to be untouched.
"This is a huge deal. Everyone loved my dad, and we really want to find him," Michael Schantz said.
Texas EquuSearch has also joined the effort to find Doug Schantz.
EquuSearch founder Tim Miller said they’ll use sonar equipment to comb the Mississippi River.
"The Mississippi River is awfully close to Bourbon Street, and if something happened, if there was foul play, that would certainly be a good spot to put somebody," Miller said.
Doug Schantz is described as a white, middle-aged man with a medium build. He stands about 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighs 200 pounds. He has blue eyes and short, straight, dirty-blond hair.
He was last seen wearing a navy blazer, a white shirt and a tie.
Sequent Energy officials said they’ve hired private investigators to assist with the investigation.
The company also asked the public for three things: prayers, tips and donations to the EquuSearch effort.
"We just want to find him alive and bring him home to the family and his colleagues," Michael Schantz said.
