The unemployed Boston barber whose body was dropped on a Cambridge sidewalk early Sunday morning by three unidentified men may have been killed by a hit-and-run motorist, authorities speculated yesterday.

"There's a good chance that he was hit by a car," said Cambridge Police Sergeant Fidele Centrella, adding, "but that doesn't rule cut homicide."

The badly-battered body of George R. Zona, 36 years old, of Malden, was found on Harvard Street near Inman Street close to City Hall at about 2 a.m. Sunday, a police official said.

Three Flee

According to eyewitnesses, Centrella said, the trio carrying Zona dropped the body when residents spotted them and fled in a car driven by a fourth man.

Centrella said detectives are investigating the death but do not yet have any suspects in the case.

Thomas Reilly of the Middlesex County District Attorney's office added investigators they were "pursuing a few leads."

Although police said they were not certain that Zona was killed by a motorist, Middlesex County Medical Examiner George Hori, who conducted an autopsy on Zona's body, said "everything points to a hit-and-run. From the injuries we saw, we don't think he was beaten by anybody."

Hori said that Zona, who suffered internal hemorrhaging and numerous fractures, had been dead for about 2 hours before he examined the victim at about 2:15 a.m. Sunday.

The incident shocked residents of the apartment buildings near the site where the body was found.

"I was upset by it," said John H. Smith, whose third-floor apartment at 279 Harvard Street looks out on the site where Zona was reportedly dropped. "It happened right outside my window."

Smith said he was asleep at the time the incident was said to have occurred and didn't hear or see anything.

Albion Kent, who lives on the ground floor of the same building said, "I'm surprised. It's a quiet neighborhood."

Kent said that he, too, was asleep, adding that police interviewed him yesterday afternoon but "I couldn't tell them anything."

One of the questions in the case is the identity and motives of the three men who reportedly carried the corpse.

Neither Cambridge police nor the D.A.'s office would release a description of the suspects or of their vehicle because they said it might interfere with the investigation.

No Motive

Centrella added that his department has not been able to come up with a motive for killing Zona.

Reilly and Centrella could not say where the death occurred. Hori, however, said that numerous cuts on the victim's body suggested he was dragged for some distance.

Cambridge and State police have been trying to trace Zona's last hours in an attempt to find clues to the reasons for his death.

Centrella is asking that "anyone who saw what happened or who can contribute anything" call the Cambridge Police at 498-9300.

Reilly said he had learned that Zona often frequented the Central Square area.

A driver who flees the scene of a fatal accident may be charged with vehicular homicide. The maximum penalty for that crime is a two-and-a-half-year prison term, Cambridge police officials said.

If Zona was killed intentionally, officials said, the suspect could be charged with murder. Depending on the circumstances, that crime could result in a penalty as serious as the death sentence.