Mysteriously Missing Men of Means: Douglas Schantz and Major Bashinsky
A business news blurb about Douglas Schantz’s disappearance
Major Bashinsky
Houston businessman Douglas Schantz, a 54-year-old executive with Sequent Energy Management, has been missing since last Friday. Schantz vanished while in New Orleans. He was last seen shortly after 2 in the morning, exiting Razzoo’s Bar and Patio on Bourbon Street. Surveillance cameras picked up images of the well-dressed exec near Bourbon and Toulouse, then he was gone.
(Thomas) Major Bashinsky, a 63-year-old Birmingham attorney and son of the former head of Golden Flake Snack Foods, vanished sometime on Wednesday of last week. If anything, Bashinsky’s disappearance is a deeper mystery – his own daughter found his car parked in South Birmingham, but otherwise, no one has any idea where he is.
There is no real-world connection between these disappearances. They are particularly strange because they involve middle-aged men of means. Executives and lawyers rarely just vanish from the face of the earth. Typically men with jobs like those held by Schantz and Bashinsky are so fully plugged in that it may seem almost impossible for them to disengage. But one way or another – by choice or not – Doug Schantz and Major Bashinsky have done just that.
Major Bashinsky’s website shows what appears to be an in-demand Estate and Tax Attorney with a wide-ranging practice and broad list of high-powered clients. Bashinsky also details on this page his deep connections to recent Alabama history and celebrity. His father, Sloan Y. Bashinsky, co-founded Golden Flake in the 40s, was a Samford University trustee and good friends with legendary University of Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. There is even a Bashinsky Computer Center on the Univ. of AL campus, donated to the institution by Sloan Bashinsky in the mid 1990s.
Douglas N. Schantz, based on an old profile found at Forbes.com, was making more than $1.5 million in compensation in his position at Sequent – 2 years ago. (His Forbes profile is no longer online, just available via Google’s cache.) Schantz was named president of Sequent Energy in May, 2003 and piloted the company into being ranked one of the top 15 American natural gas marketing companies. Schantz, in a report published in the Houston Chronicle, was described as “modest about titles, popular among staff and warm in nature.” Schantz also has more than just business ties to New Orleans, as one of his children attends Tulane.
But after he left a group of colleagues and Tulane officials very early last Friday, Douglas Schantz disappeared, missing his flight back to Houston.
Major Bashinsky (who actually lives in the Birmingham suburb of Mountain Brook, which was also home to famed missing teen Natalee Holloway), in a report aired on Birmingham’s CBS affiliate, was described in terms you’d expect: he was punctual, reliable, simply not the kind of person to just vanish into thin air.
So what could have happened to two such men of means to make them drop off the map? Foul play, or choice? It is hard to believe it might be choice – both seem, in depictions in the press, to be men who always came home again, steady, reliable. But as is always the case with missing people, the other option is probably too much for their loved ones to consider.
UPDATE… Crews searching for Douglas Schantz pulled a body from the Mississippi River early Tuesday afternoon. No word yet as to whether it is Schantz. LATER: The AP reports that New Orleans police confirm the body pulled from the river is Douglas N. Schantz.
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Mysteriously Missing Men of Means: Douglas Schantz and Major Bashinsky
A business news blurb about Douglas Schantz’s disappearance
Major Bashinsky
Houston businessman Douglas Schantz, a 54-year-old executive with Sequent Energy Management, has been missing since last Friday. Schantz vanished while in New Orleans. He was last seen shortly after 2 in the morning, exiting Razzoo’s Bar and Patio on Bourbon Street. Surveillance cameras picked up images of the well-dressed exec near Bourbon and Toulouse, then he was gone.
(Thomas) Major Bashinsky, a 63-year-old Birmingham attorney and son of the former head of Golden Flake Snack Foods, vanished sometime on Wednesday of last week. If anything, Bashinsky’s disappearance is a deeper mystery – his own daughter found his car parked in South Birmingham, but otherwise, no one has any idea where he is.
There is no real-world connection between these disappearances. They are particularly strange because they involve middle-aged men of means. Executives and lawyers rarely just vanish from the face of the earth. Typically men with jobs like those held by Schantz and Bashinsky are so fully plugged in that it may seem almost impossible for them to disengage. But one way or another – by choice or not – Doug Schantz and Major Bashinsky have done just that.
Major Bashinsky’s website shows what appears to be an in-demand Estate and Tax Attorney with a wide-ranging practice and broad list of high-powered clients. Bashinsky also details on this page his deep connections to recent Alabama history and celebrity. His father, Sloan Y. Bashinsky, co-founded Golden Flake in the 40s, was a Samford University trustee and good friends with legendary University of Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. There is even a Bashinsky Computer Center on the Univ. of AL campus, donated to the institution by Sloan Bashinsky in the mid 1990s.
Douglas N. Schantz, based on an old profile found at Forbes.com, was making more than $1.5 million in compensation in his position at Sequent – 2 years ago. (His Forbes profile is no longer online, just available via Google’s cache.) Schantz was named president of Sequent Energy in May, 2003 and piloted the company into being ranked one of the top 15 American natural gas marketing companies. Schantz, in a report published in the Houston Chronicle, was described as “modest about titles, popular among staff and warm in nature.” Schantz also has more than just business ties to New Orleans, as one of his children attends Tulane.
But after he left a group of colleagues and Tulane officials very early last Friday, Douglas Schantz disappeared, missing his flight back to Houston.
Major Bashinsky (who actually lives in the Birmingham suburb of Mountain Brook, which was also home to famed missing teen Natalee Holloway), in a report aired on Birmingham’s CBS affiliate, was described in terms you’d expect: he was punctual, reliable, simply not the kind of person to just vanish into thin air.
So what could have happened to two such men of means to make them drop off the map? Foul play, or choice? It is hard to believe it might be choice – both seem, in depictions in the press, to be men who always came home again, steady, reliable. But as is always the case with missing people, the other option is probably too much for their loved ones to consider.
Anyone who may know something about Douglas Schantz’s disappearance should call the New Orleans CrimeStoppers. If you know what happened to Major Bashinsky, contact the Mountain Brook, AL police. [NBC13.com]
UPDATE… Crews searching for Douglas Schantz pulled a body from the Mississippi River early Tuesday afternoon. No word yet as to whether it is Schantz. LATER: The AP reports that New Orleans police confirm the body pulled from the river is Douglas N. Schantz.