A state trooper who helped investigate the murder of a Tamaqua woman was honored by the Lehigh County Chiefs of Police Association.

Trooper Raymond M. Judge of Troop M, Bethlehem was presented the 27th annual Col. John K. Schafer Memorial award by Lehigh County District Attorney James B. Martin at a luncheon held Jan. 13 at DeSales University, Center Valley.Martin called Judge "a thorough, tenacious investigator."Judge had gathered evidence that led to the arrest of Anthony Heath, 25, of Allentown. Heath has admitted to strangling Angela Steigerwalt in the early morning hours of Feb. 1, 2014, after she refused to take him to a child custody hearing.Heath and another trooper interviewed Heath after he fled to North Carolina. The interviews revealed that Steigerwalt, 35, had been killed in Allentown, and her body set ablaze along a road in Jim Thorpe where it was discovered hours later by firefighters.Heath, charged with homicide, is scheduled for trial on March 23 in Lehigh County court.Judge's award was named for a former Pennsylvania State Police commissioner who had a 23-year career with the state police, part of which was with Troop M.Schafer's son, Craig, attended the luncheon with his family.Judge was also an investigator in several other high-profile cases, including the slaying of Jessica Padgett, 33, of Northampton County. Padgett vanished in November 2014. Her body was later discovered on the Allen Township property of her stepfather, Gregory Graf, who was charged in her death. Graf is awaiting trial in Northampton County.In addition to Judge, the association also presented trooper Stephen DeAngeles of Troop M, Fogelsville Station as Officer of the Year.He was credited with helping to save the life of a 2-year-old girl who was being driven to a hospital when the girl and her father got stuck in a backlog of traffic caused by a multivehicle crash on Interstate 78 west on Aug. 11, 2014. DeAngeles drove the little girl and her father to the hospital in his cruiser in six minutes flat. the child recovered.