"But it could have been someone who caught up to him from the past," she said.

Marilyn Grace, president of St. George-based Story Teller Productions, said she can't discuss why Forsyth and the Pecks now suspect Long may have been murdered.

Grace has been on a quest to find out what happened to Butch and Sundance for the past 12 years. She is working with producer/director Michael Karr and Long's great-grandson Jerry Nickle on a documentary film about the search.

"If it weren't for Jerry, we would never have found (Long)," Grace said. "He's always suspected his great-grandfather was the Sundance Kid."

Grace said four samples have been collected from Long's remains by Sorenson Forensics in Salt Lake City. The samples have been sent to an undisclosed lab for testing against known DNA from the Longabaugh family. Results are expected in four to eight weeks.

The skeletal remains have also been examined by biological anthropologist John M. McCullough. The University of Utah professor's comparison of photos of Longabaugh and Long helped secure a court order to exhume Long for further study.

Grace said McCullough's analysis revealed identical traits in both men — including a notch in an ear, evidence of a broken nose, and a cleft chin. There are also matches in height, hair color and eye color. And Grace noted that in the famous "Fort Worth Five" photo of the Wild Bunch, the Sundance Kid's fingers on his right hand are curled under.

Long's fingers on his right hand are also curled under in the same manner in a later photograph taken with Luzernia.

"Before DNA in 1992, we could have gone into a court of law and convicted William Henry Long of being the Sundance Kid," Grace said. "But because of DNA, we're just waiting.…We really do have him. You can't argue against the photo analysis; it's science."

But for Grace, it was her own interviews with Forsyth that brought history to life.

"Bill Long was just a picture — a flat, non-dimensional picture — and she helped us put it all together," Grace said.

Asked again how certain she is that her step-grandfather isn't Sundance, Forsyth answered: "I sure feel like I'm sure, but I'd be glad to see it solved."

E-MAIL: geoff@ubstandard.com