HIGBEE BEACH — Lower Township Police concluded an investigation into a sex assault that occurred in July of 2000.

Dylan Ravel, 33, currently incarcerated in the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City, Nevada, was charged with sexual assault after his DNA came back a hit through the CODIS criminal database.

In July 2000, a female victim reported that she was sexually assaulted in the area of the Higbee Beach parking lot. At the time, police did not have a suspect, but evidence was gathered by the police and turned over to the New Jersey State Police Lab and they recovered DNA which was put into the CODIS system.

In September 2006, Lower Township police received information from the State Police that they received a DNA hit on a Ravel as a possible suspect in the sexual assault case from July 2000.

Ravel had been arrested in Nevada and they put his DNA into the system.

After further investigation by Detective Joseph Boyle with assistance from the Cape May County Prosecutors Office, charges were filed on Aug. 27 against Ravel for sexual assault.

A detainer will be put on him when he gets released from the Nevada facility so when his term is up they will hold him and notify Lower Township for extradition from Nevada to New Jersey.