COLD, emotionless and with evil in his eyes. They are the words the team charged with hunting down Maninder Pal Singh Kohli and bringing him to justice use to describe him.

For more than five-and-a-half years detectives from Hampshire’s major crime department have read, heard and recorded every ounce of damning evidence that ultimately proved him guilty of the abduction, rape and murder of Hannah Foster.

For all of them – horrified by the death of a promising, intelligent young woman – it became a personal mission to get justice for Hannah.

The Daily Echo revealed in the early days and weeks of the enquiry how officers began giving up an hour of their working day dedicated to the 17-year-old and known simply as “Hannah’s Hour”.

DI Dave Crouch, DS Steve Mardon, DC Neil Cutting and indexer Lynn Priestley were part of that team and have remained on the case ever since.

For each of them, there are pivotal moments that will stay with them forever.

When grade A student Hannah was reported missing, officers were initially dealing with it as a suspected abduction.

All that changed when, on the afternoon of Sunday, March 16, the stark reality of what had happened began to unfold.

DS Mardon said: “There was a 999 call and I heard an officer on the phone to the control room. There was a body, it was a girl, she had brown hair. It just went totally silent. I feared the worst. I knew it was going to be Hannah but desperately didn’t want it to happen.”

Each of them recall the eerie silence in the incident room for the briefing on what was now a murder enquiry.

DS Mardon added: “I remember a few days later being told that Mr and Mrs Foster were coming to visit the incident room. We had been told to stand up and introduce ourselves when they arrived. They walked in with Sarah – she bore such a striking resemblance and she was so young. It almost had me in tears.

“Trevor said to us ‘please don’t get up, I know that you are doing the best you can for us, please just keep working’. It was very moving. You felt that you were working for them – to get justice for their daughter.”

At 2.10pm on Thursday, March 27, the critical call came from James Dennis, Kohli’s boss at Hazelwood Foods in Empress Road, who noticed that his employee fitted the bill. However, as officers were despatched to Kohli’s home and workplace there came a second blow – he had fled the country.

With their prime suspect on the run in India, the work of the MCD switched to figuring out what was needed in terms of evidence to prove that he was the right man. Files were prepared and a warrant was issued for Kohli’s arrest.

Hampshire detectives initially made three trips to India – in April and September 2003 and again in March 2004 – to try to locate their man, but it was during a visit along with Hilary and Trevor Foster in July 2004 that he was eventually captured.

“He was found in Kalimpong, 8,000 metres up in the mountains. We could see him on the television and we knew they had the right man,” said DC Cutting.

The team are quick to acknowledge that Hannah’s parents played the pivotal role in getting Kohli back to the UK and before a court.

DI Crouch said: “As far as we are concerned, if the Fosters had not gone to India to publicise the hunt for Kohli, we don’t believe he would have been caught as quickly as he was. There is a great chance we would still be looking for him now.”

Three more trips to India followed, during which the detectives could only sit and watch as Kohli was ushered into court, not wearing handcuffs, as is the norm in India.

False starts After many false starts, DI Crouch and DC Cutting made their final trip to India in July 2007 to bring back Kohli. In a moment they both describe as “surreal” he was handed over on the plane and arrested. DC Cutting said: “He appears quite placid on the outside but I knew what he had done and I could see evil in his eyes.”

Seated at the back of the plane Kohli was given a meal, a drink and allowed to watch TV. They turned down an offer to be upgraded because “he didn’t deserve that”. DI Crouch said: “We didn’t seek to engage him in conversation at all. He tried small talk with us but we were just polite. There were kids sat just in front of us who were thankfully blissfully unaware.”

At Heathrow, Kohli was handed over to colleagues from Hampshire and taken to Alton police station to be quizzed.

At 3am the following day DS Mardon charged him with Hannah’s rape, abduction and murder.

He said: “It was the greatest satisfaction. He was emotionless, cold and showed no feeling as to the consequences of his actions. It was a relief to see him there and the door close behind him in the cells.”