GEORGETOWN, Guyana--More than 400 members of an American religious cult were still missing in Guyana, South America, despite a search through dense jungle yesterday as Guyanese officials tried to restore order to a region that was the site of five murders and 400 deaths in a mass suicide last weekend.

The bodies of the suicide victims, who apparently killed themselves rather than risk the disbanding of their cult following the murder of a California congressman and four other Americans, began to decay in the intense heat, army officials reported.

Meanwhile, the bodies of Rep. Leo J. Ryan (D-Calif.), three employees of NBC News, and a cult member who was trying to leave Guyana under Ryan's protection, were returned to the United States for burial.