A composite sketch developed at Kansas University didn’t help much with the investigation into a series of arsons set in Douglas and Johnson counties, officials said Wednesday.

The sketch was compiled by the KU Public Safety Office after a Facilities Operations worker at KU saw a man leave an area where a set of microeconomics books had been set on fire.

“We have to take a composite just as that — someone’s best attempt to recall what a person looks like,” said Kent Harris, Olathe fire marshal. “We used it in an effort to get it out there on the possibility that it may be something the suspect looks like. In this particular case, the composite was basically put on the shelf as we went further into the investigation.”

Harris spoke during a news conference announcing the arrest of David Ryan Jay, who is suspected of setting 15 fires. He didn’t elaborate on why the composite proved unhelpful.

Johnson County Dist. Atty. Paul Morrison said authorities didn’t know whether the Facilities Operations employee had seen the arsonist or someone else in the area.

“It might’ve been just some kid coming out of the stacks, getting ready for his anthropology test the next day,” Morrison said.