Dr. Solomon Merkmallen (played by Michael Chinyamurindi) was a scientist who discovered the alien spacecraft on the Ivory Coast in Africa.
He put two pieces of metal he had found containing alien text together and was shocked to see the pieces fly into a book, then spin into the air when he retrieved them.
He traveled to America, American University, to meet with Steven Sandoz, but encountered Dr. Barnes instead. Merkmallen quickly realized it was not Sandoz and Barnes then murdered him, hiding his mutilated corpse in a trash compactor in Sandoz' home, minus parts that would contain significant traces of radiation from the artifact. Amina Ngebe was a colleague of Merkmallen at the Ivory Coast university. (TXF: "Biogenesis")