SPO1 Joel Tare of Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (Cocpo) Station 3 said Pangarungan was found with a dog's chain tied around her neck at a second-floor window, initially making the case appear as suicide.
Police are not discounting foul play as the victim's domestic partner, Christian Osin, a known auto dealer in Cagayan de Oro City, was nowhere to be found in the house and could not be located even as of Wednesday.
The house was deserted when authorities barged in and found signs of a struggle, SPO1 Tare said.
Figurines inside the living room and master's bedroom at the second floor of the house were shattered and there was blood on the floor, probers said, adding that no visible wound in the victim's body was found.
Police could not immediately determine whether the blood belonged to the victim or someone else.
Several neighbors, who spoke to Sun.Star on condition of anonymity, said Pangarungan and Osin were often heard quarreling.
The night before Pagarungan's body was found, they said they overheard the couple fighting. Osin allegedly went out of the house on his car around 3 a.m. and he never came back.
It was only after sunrise when neighbors discovered Pangarungan's body hanging from one of the windows of their house.
Osin's three children from his estranged wife, who were living with him, are now under the custody of other relatives, police said.
Meanwhile, police said Pangarungan's remains were immediately brought to their native place in Lanao del Norte and buried Wednesday according to Muslim burial customs.
Before her death, Pangarungan was reported missing by her relatives, police said.
