THE MARKER WE'VE BEEN...WAITING FOR

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They also established their presence on the Internet, through both their glossy Heaven's Gate Website and energetic postings to various newsgroups. A disciple, Sister Francis Michael, recently chimed in to alt.religion.scientology, giving "a round of applause" to the Church of Scientology for its "courageous action against the Cult Awareness Network." During its most recent upsurge, according to one of the cult's Internet sites, membership "doubled," although from what to what remains unknown. People who have studied the cult estimate that at its peak, there were between 200 and 1,000 followers. And one person friendly with many of the victims insists there are more Heaven's Gaters still alive.

"WE TRY TO STAY POSITIVE IN EVERY CIRCUMSTANCE."

People who came into contact with the group agree: the members seemed happy. "They were very loyal," says Matzorkis, who paid the Higher Source employees a total of $10,000 to $15,000 to design Websites. "I'm glad we worked with them." Mike Afshin, who owned Comp-X, a Del Mar computer shop where victim David Geoffrey Moore worked, says when he heard Moore was one of the dead, "it was sad. My wife started crying. He was physically and mentally strong and happy. I never saw him complaining about life. [Moore and co-worker and fellow cultist Real Steele] never tried to advertise for their religion. Both of them were strong, so I don't see how anyone could brainwash them or make them do something like that."

Nancie Brown lost her son David Moore to the cult when he was 19. "My friends said, 'He'll be back in a couple of months,' but 21 years later he hadn't come back," she says. He came home only twice during that time, and she sought solace with other cultists' families, even publishing a newsletter for a while. But Brown grew almost accepting of her son's choice, realizing that the group had become her son's community. "About two dozen of those who died had been in the group for two decades. They had a simple life together. They had formed a close family." So close, she says, that they were unable to see beyond their restricted world view, one that permitted them to consider suicide as a viable option.

Cult experts warn that the public should not be taken in by the cheerful departures, nor by the notion that it was a small number of people exercising their own free will. "I don't consider it suicide. I consider it murder," says Janja Lalich, a cult expert who has been monitoring Heaven's Gate since 1994, when several distraught parents contacted her with their worries about their missing children. "[Applewhite] controlled it, he called the shots. These people were pawns in his personal fantasy." But Marshall Herff Applewhite has died with his followers. And they seemed so happy to have gone with him. The evidence, such as it is, is on tape.

--Reported by Cathy Booth and James Willwerth/Rancho Santa Fe, Nancy Harbert/Albuquerque, Rachele Kanigal/Oakland and Richard N. Ostling and Noah Robischon/New York

For more information, a mirror of the cult's Website and continuous updates, see time.com and pathfinder.com