`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 most exhaustive manhunt in recent history apparently is over. The body of a man thought to be Andrew Cunanan was found Wednesday night by police who stormed a houseboat after a four-hour siege, according to Miami Beach Mayor Seymour Gelber and other sources.

The most wanted person in America, the only suspect in the brazen killing of designer Gianni Versace and the slayings of four other men, Cunanan appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head, 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.''

If so, the saga of Andrew Cunanan - accused of a murder spree that touched four states and chilled an entire nation - ended just 41 blocks north of Versace's mansion, the site of his most shocking crime, an execution-style murder of a world-renowned figure.

Several high-ranking law enforcement sources confirmed that police were nearly certain that the body found in the houseboat was Cunanan's.

Two sources said a .40-caliber handgun, the same type of weapon allegedly used by Cunanan in three of the slayings, was found beside the man's body. They said officers were merely awaiting fingerprint confirmation by forensic specialists. One source said the body was found on the second floor of the houseboat.

``It's 99.9 percent sure that it's him,'' one police source said.

An official said authorities were trying to reach Versace's family in Italy ``so they could find out before the world does.''

Senior police officers refused to conclusively say 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 if the man resembled Cunanan, Barreto said:

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

Two police sources said the man's face was disfigured by the gunshot, but he still bore a strong resemblance to Cunanan.

The dramatic series of events began about 4 p.m. Wednesday, when police special forces - complete with helicopters, boats and dogs - descended en masse on the shuttered houseboat at 5250 Collins Ave.

During the siege, police fired eight rounds of combination tear gas-concussion grenades into the boat. They shouted ``Come out! 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 that the man believed to be Cunanan took his life and ended a dragnet that galvanized the nation.

In the immediate aftermath of the assault and for nearly three more hours, 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 search in recent U.S. history, though authorities' desire to notify Versace's family may have played a role.

Police sped to the scene after a caretaker reported spotting a 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 did include Cunanan.

As the drama 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. They screamed: ``Pick up the phone! Talk to us!''

Neighbors cowered indoors, cloaked behind drawn curtains. Tourists and

businesspeople found themselves trapped behind police lines. Many South Floridians and others around the nation monitored the event on television, magnetized by the possibility - the hope - that Cunanan was cornered, about to be caught.

Before long, Metro-Dade County tactical specialists slipped close, seeking cover behind nearby bushes and behind a red Ford Explorer truck parked in the driveway. Helmeted, carrying 12-gauge shotguns and small submachine guns, wearing bulletproof vests, their black T-shirts emblazed with the letters SWAT, they held their position, surrounding the place, crawling ever closer.

Cunanan, 27, was believed by police to be the man who slipped behind Versace on the morning of July 15, pumped two bullets into his head and then evaporated into the city. Versace, an artist recognized 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, Cunanan stole his victims' vehicles, leaving them behind at the scene of his next alleged crime.

The cemetery worker's pickup truck was found last week in a garage just blocks from Versace's mansion. That truck provided many clues for detectives, including a receipt linking him to a gold coin hocked at a Miami Beach pawnshop.

A clerk at the shop, workers and residents of the nearby Normandy Plaza hotel, and many others in the neighborhood reported seeing Cunanan before the slaying of Versace. No confirmed sightings were reported since Versace's death.

Cunanan has been on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List for months, but the manhunt attained critical mass in the past week. His picture has been published in virtually every newspaper in America, his image tra`nsmitted during nearly every televised news broadcast. More than 1,000 tips flooded into police hotlines.

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Photo, Box

Box: (Color) Details of 5 killings

Photo: (Color) Andrew Cunanan

FBI's most wanted suspect