LOS ANGELES, Dec. 3 – Bruce Davis, a member of Charles Manson’s hippie-style family sought since last April on murder charges, surrendered to police Wednesday. Meanwhile, a defense attorney in the Sharon Tate murder trial remained missing for a third day.

The bearded, barefoot Davis, 27, was embraced joyfully by about a dozen Manson family members who have been camped outside the Hall of Justice while their leader and three women followers are being tried on murder-conspiracy charges in the slayings of Miss Tate and six others.

Two defense attorneys in the Tate trial, Paul Fitzgerald and Daye Shinn, were waiting on the corner with two homicide detectives as Davis walked up with a young woman.

Reports circulated that Tate defense attorneys would ask that they be allowed to call Davis as a witness, but Fitzgerald said this was not correct.

Davis, indicted in the July 1969 slaying of musician Gary Hinman, said he surrendered because “he would do it for me.” Asked by newsmen if he was referring to Manson, Davis shrugged his shoulders, smiled, and said: “They want to kill bodies.”

He declined to elaborate. His arraignment was set for Thursday.

The young woman with him, who said she was Brenda McCann, told newsmen, “I just came here to testify.”

The surrender came as authorities launched a helicopter search of a wilderness area where attorney Ronald Hughes is reported missing.

Hughes, 35, failed to show up Monday when Tate trial proceedings resumed following a one-week recess after the defense rested without calling a witness.

Judge Charles H. Older ordered the search Tuesday after a man identifying himself as Hughes telephoned another defense attorney’s office to report being stranded by a mudslide in a wilderness 130 miles north of Los Angeles.

There were torrential rains in southern California over the weekend.

However, Fitzgerald told newsmen Wednesday he had been contacted by a friend of Hughes’s named Larry Dyer who said he — not Hughes — had called to report Hughes being stranded.

When Dyer heard Hughes was not at the trial Monday he assumed Hughes was marooned, Fitzgerald said.

Hughes represents Leslie Van Houten, 21.

Other attorneys in the Tate case continued to meet in chambers Wednesday with Judge Older, discussing jury instructions.

A mistrial for Miss Van Houten could be ruled if Hughes is not located, or the judge could name another attorney for her — which would cause an extended delay.

Manson and codefendant Susan Atkins also have been charged with murder in the Hinman slaying.

By LINDA DEUTSCH