Three public hearings solicited information from Illinois and Federal law enforcement agencies, parents of missing children, social service professionals, government officials, criminal justice practitioners, and private citizens. Information was also obtained from searches of State and national data sources, information systems, and experts. Findings showed that missing young adults are most likely to be runaways or accident victims and least likely to have been abducted by a stranger. A consensus policy view emerging from the study is that police should gather complete and accurate information before classifying any person as missing either voluntarily or involuntarily. The report recommends the immediate elimination of the ''24-hour rule' for delaying action in missing person cases and a policy of immediately entering a missing person report into State and national missing person data bases. Other recommendations are summarized. Supplementary material and tabular data are appended.