Alleged Etan Patz killer to be indicted, attorney says

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The man who confessed to the 1979 murder of 6-year-old Etan Patz will be indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, his attorney said Wednesday.

Attorney Harvey Fishbein said Pedro Hernandez is scheduled to appear in court Thursday.

Hernandez had been arrested on charges of second degree murder and kidnapping.

This summer he admitted that he choked the boy after luring him into the basement of a small Manhattan grocery store, police said.

He allegedly told authorities he threw away the boy's body in a garbage bag. The remains have not been found.

His lawyer previously told a judge that Hernandez has a history of mental disorders, suffers from hallucinations and is bipolar.

Patz disappeared on his way to a New York school bus stop more than 33 years ago. The boy's plight catapulted concern for missing children to the national forefront after authorities put his image on thousands of milk cartons.