Daily News from New York, New York • 117

oGf taGodl odd tasCo Bx. teen vanished after school a week ago By MICHELE McPHEE jj "She was a beautiful little girl," Mary-ann Colon said. The Colons said the teen's family was not doing well emotionally. Minerliz' mother threw herself into Maryann Colon's arms, weeping. Her stepfather kept mumbling to Roger Colon: "I loved her like she was my own.

I've raised her since she's been born." Other neighbors said Minerliz shouldered a lot of responsibility. She did her family's laundry and often walked three blocks to a 24-hour deli, sometimes late at night, to buy groceries. A school official, who did not want to be named, said Minerliz was seen crying at school two days before she disappeared. Yesterday, her classmates were weeping for the slain girl. "She was nice," Vanessa Stranza, 13, said.

"I'm scared now. What if whoever did this is still around here?" killer was not a stranger to the girl. "She was a great kid. Her teachers are heartbroken, her little friends are heartbroken," said Carole Valentino, the principal at Minerliz' school. Valentino said Minerliz was a peer mediator who earned excellent grades, even if her attendance was spotty.

Yesterday, at the small building where Minerliz had lived with her mother, Minerva Sepeda, her stepfather, Ray Rob-lez, and little sister, Nadia, for two years, neighbors were devastated. A picture of Minerliz was placed in the lobby of her building after she was reported missing at 7:30 p.m. last Wednesday. It was quietly taken down late Sunday. "This is terrible.

1 really wanted to find her alive. We all did," said Roger Colon, who, with his pregnant wife, Mary-ann, had spent hours combing the neighborhood for the girl. Daily News Staff Writer One week ago, 13-year-old Minerliz Soriano waved goodbye to her sister and walked to her Bronx corner to catch the Bxl2 bus for Middle School 135, where she was a popular seventh-grader. When the school bell rang at 2:20 p.m. last Wednesday, she left, clad in a red jacket and carrying her black book bag.

She was never seen alive again. On Sunday, a maintenance man found Minerliz' strangled, battered body, stuffed in a black bag in a trash bin, police said yesterday. Cops have no idea why anyone would want to kill the slight brunette who wrote poetry and read romance novels when she wasn't zooming around on roller skates or a bicycle near her Pelham Parkway home. Sources, though, said they believe the MISSING teen Minerliz Soriano was found slain. 1 A survey of 1,500 families found: Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens 0 11 11 30 afcssssws33swss Staten All NYC Island 31 1G Total family assets of more than Total family assets $0 or negative: 53 45 55 20 44 44 91 05 78 00 00 0G Parent thinks child Is getting a good education: (Answered 'agrea' or "somewhat agree 'J 37 30 32 43 32 33 35 Adults think New York City has become a better place to live In last few years: Adults rate police 52 54 72 70 03 C2 protection as pretty good or very good: Gas mogul is guilty of 2 murders By HELEN PETERSON Daily News Staff Writer An immigrant millionaire whose path to the American dream was strewn with bodies now faces the death penalty after a federal jury yesterday convicted him of two murders.

Gas station mogul Gurmeet Singh Dhinsa showed little reaction except clenching his jaw occasionally as the jury foreman read the verdict But the conviction seemed too much to bear for Dhinsa's wife, Miriam Azadelli, who left the jammed courtroom trembling and weeping as it was read. Dhinsa, 36, was convicted of 21 of the 29 counts with which he was charged, including the March 16, 1997, slaying of Manmohan Singh in Brooklyn and the June 18, 1997, slaying of Satinderjit Singh in Queens. "We intend to go forward next week with some very good arguments as to why the death penalty should not be imposed," defense attorney Gerald Shargel said. Three contract killers who carried out the hits testified at Dhinsa's seven-week trial that he ordered the deaths. Dhinsa came to the United States from India in 1982 and took a job as a car wash attendant He later created an empire of 51 City Gas stations that grossed around $60 million a year.

Federal prosecutors said Dhinsa built his empire on bribery and fraud, protected it through intimidation and violence and didn't hesitate to kill to thwart justice. Manmohan Singh was slain after coming to the United States to search for his brother, Kulwant, a City Gas employee who vanished July 9, 1995. Testimony showed that SOURCE: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK'S SOCIAL INDICATORS 1997 TRINE OIJEVER DAILY NEWS have aoDdQ tmse dM odd ditty pf tion. Some 86 said they believed their kids were getting a good education. Among other findings: A third of New Yorkers said they couldn't borrow $1,000 from a family member, and 16 couldn't get even a $100 loan.

The situation is the worst in the Bronx, where 26 of residents couldn't scrape together $100 in a pinch. Nearly 30 of adults ages 30 to 64 with kids at home confess they've been late with utility payments. The figure By VIRGINIA BREEN Dairy News Staff wntef The Big Apple may boast plenty of Wall Street millionaires, but one in seven of us can't even get a $100 loan from family or friends. A new Columbia University study portrays New York as a city of haves and have-nots not only financially, but in such areas as social well-being, health and living conditions. "It's the best of times for many New Yorkers, but the very worst of times for many others," said Marcia Meyers, a professor at Columbia University's School of Social Work and co-author of the report Meyers and school Chairman Irwin Garfinkel surveyed by phone more than 1,500 families from diverse racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds in late 1997.

More than one-third said the city is a better place to live than it was a few years ago, and 62 said they were pleased with the level of police protec jumps to 34 in single-parent homes. More than 30 of city residents went without health insurance for at least part of the year. Nearly a quarter of families in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens were uninsured, more than the national average of 14. Nearly 20 of the wealthiest New Yorkers lack health insurance. The chance that poor adults will suffer ill health is more than eight times greater than that of the wealthiest New Yorkers.

Nearly 60 of city parents say their kids have at least one behavior problem. Immigrant parents of all races are less likely than their native-born counterparts to report that children are behind in school or have behavior adjustment problems. Myerson noted that the stark disparity between rich and poor may not be new, but added, "No matter how accustomed we are to the fact of inequality in the city, the hard data should still have the power to inform us." "It's the best of times for many New Yorkers, but the very worst of times for many others." MARCIA MEYERS 3 Manmohan was ordered dead after asking too many questions about Dhinsa's role in Kulwant's disappearance..