doug schantz

The disappearance of a Houston energy executive in New Orleans's French Quarter could have been the result of foul play, a New Orleans Police Department official said Monday.

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

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

"We have been using a tremendous amount of resources," Mr. 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 Mr. Schantz walking by himself in a blue blazer and white shirt at the corner of Bourbon and Toulouse Streets, Mr. Defillo said.

Mr. Schantz hasn't reached out to his family or friends, and his cellphones are dead.

"There is a total disconnect," Mr. Defillo said.

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

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

Mr. 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.