[0] `WE THINK IT'S HIM;' BODY BELIEVED TO BE CUNANAN FOUND IN FLORIDA.

Byline: Frances Robles, John Lantigua and Martin Merzer The Miami Herald

The biggest manhunt in recent history apparently is over. The remains of a man believed to be Andrew Cunanan were found Wednesday night after a five-hour search by police who stormed a houseboat, according to Miami Beach Mayor Seymour Gelber and other sources.

Cunanan, the most wanted fugitive in America and the only suspect in the brazen killing of designer Gianni Versace and the slayings of four other men, appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Gelber said.

``Almost definitively, it's him,'' Gelber said. ``They have to do the tests, but we think it's him. I'm happy.''

Said a Miami Beach detective: ``Believe me. It's him.''

Another high-ranking law enforcement source confirmed that police believed the body to be Cunanan's. Authorities were trying to reach Versace's relatives in Italy ``so they could find out before the world does,'' the source said.

Two other sources reported similar information.

Police refused to state officially that Cunanan was dead. But Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Barreto confirmed that a man's body had been found inside the houseboat.

Asked during a late night news conference whether the man resembled Cunanan, Barreto said:

``There is a similarity in the description of the victim that was found.''

The dramatic series of events began Wednesday afternoon, when police special forces - complete with helicopters, boats and dogs - descended en masse on the shuttered houseboat, 41 blocks north of Versace's mansion.

During the siege, police fired eight rounds of tear gas or flash-bang grenades into the boat. They repeatedly shouted: Come out. Eventually, eight officers, huddled behind shields, stormed the boat.

At 8:03 p.m., before police entered the houseboat, some witnesses heard a muffled shot from inside. That might have been the precise moment when the man believed to be Cunanan took his life and ended a dragnet that galvanized the nation.

For nearly three hours after the assault, police indicated that no one had been found inside the house.

``Negative on the initial search,'' one police officer told another in a radio transmission.

``It appears that no one is inside,'' said Miami Beach police spokesman Al Boza.

But authorities later changed their story, possibly as the result of subsequent searches.

No explanation was immediately available for the many hours of delay in announcing the end of the most comprehensive manhunt in recent U.S. history, although authorities' desire to notify Versace's family might have played a role.

As the siege unfolded, police sharpshooters took the high ground in surrounding condominiums and inched close to the houseboat. At one point, they tossed in what appeared to be a telephone trailing a wire. One after another screamed ``Pick up the phone'' and ``Talk to us.''

Neighbors cowered in their homes. Tourists and business people found themselves trapped behind police lines. Many South Floridians and others around the nation monitored the drama on television, magnetized by the hope that Cunanan was cornered and about to be caught.

Even as officers surrounded the houseboat, spokesmen said they could not be sure if Cunanan or anyone else was inside it.

``The word here is caution,'' Boza said. ``We're going to be very careful. We're not going to make any errors.''

Police sped to the scene after a caretaker reported spotting an unauthorized stranger inside the boat. At first, he said the stranger fired a single shot at him. Later, the caretaker said he wasn't sure about the shot, but he was certain about the stranger.

He identified the assailant as a young man with dark hair, a very general description that could have applied to Cunanan.

Before long, Metro-Dade tactical specialists slipped close, seeking cover behind bushes and a red Ford Explorer truck parked in the driveway. Carrying rifles and shotguns, they crawled ever closer to the houseboat in their helmets, bulletproof vests and black T-shirts.

FBI agents - some of them still wearing white shirts and other office clothes behind their protective vests - joined in the vigil. So did platoons of Miami Beach police officers. On the water side, a police boat stood sentry 100 feet away.

The two-story, two-bedroom houseboat is owned by Torsten Reineck, according to public records, which also show that Reineck owns the Apollo Health Club and Spa, catering to gays, in Las Vegas.

A friend, interior designer Ron Bourne, said the boat has been vacant since Christmas and Reineck has been out of the country. A worker at the Las Vegas club said Reineck has been in Germany. The worker said nobody at the club remembers ever seeing Cunanan or Versace there.

Bourne said Reineck has been trying to sell the houseboat for about $250,000.

The ground floor is dominated by a living room and a dining room, Bourne said. The upper floor contains a bathroom as well as the two bedrooms.

Cunanan, 27, is believed by police to be the man who slipped behind Versace the morning of July 15, pumped two bullets into his head and then evaporated into the city. Versace, an artist renowned around the world, died on the front steps of his elegant villa on Ocean Drive.

Cunanan also has been charged or implicated in the deaths of two friends in Minneapolis, an elderly man in Chicago and a cemetery worker in New Jersey. In nearly every case, victims' vehicles were stolen and left behind at the scene of the next crime.

Cunanan has been on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list for months, but the manhunt intensified in the past week. His picture has been published in virtually every newspaper in America. His image has been transmitted on nearly every television station. More than 1,000 tips flooded into police hotlines.

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Box: (Color) Details of 5 killings

Photo: (Color) Andrew Cunanan

FBI's most wanted suspect