STOCKTON, Nov. 15 – A tiny eight-month-old girl, orphaned by the gunshot slayings of her parents and cared for by three “Manson girls” until their arrests on murder charges, waited today for someone to claim her.

Heidi Willett, who was found by police in a house where her mother’s body had been dumped in the basement, was described as a “healthy, well-developed child” at the county dependent children’s home.

Her father, James T. Willett, 26, a former Marine from Los Angeles, was gunned down Oct. 10 and buried in a shallow grave outside the resort town of Guerneville, Sonoma County.

Her mother, Lauren, 19, was shot in the head last weekend in a Stockton home where she and the child had been living with three young women and three ex-convicts charged with the two killings.

The women, who had the scars of “Manson family” crosses on their forehads, and two of the men were apprehended at the house Sunday.

The suspects in the two murders are Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme and Nancy Pitman, two 24-year-old followers of mass murderer Charles Manson who held vigils outside his first trial; Priscilla Cooper, 21; Michael Monfort, 24; James T. Craig, 33, and William M. Goucher, 23.

San Joaquin County officials said the child would remain in their custody until she is claimed by relatives “capable, responsible and willing to take her.”

“The girl is a healthy, well developed child,” said social worker Bill Hunt. “As far as we can tell, she hasn’t been abused. There’s nothing to indicate anything wrong.”

He said the San Joaquin Superior Court had been petitioned to hold a hearing on the child’s future, but that it would be canceled if responsible relatives appear.

“We haven’t talked to any relatives,” Hunt said. “We don’t even know if they’re aware of the child’s existence.”

Willett, the son of A. Thompson Willett, president of the Willett Distilling Co. in Bardstown, Ky., was discharged recently from the Marines after two hitches and remained in California. His wife apparently was the daughter of a Connecticut couple who police hoped would fly here to identify the body and claim the infant. Authorities declined to give the family’s name.