diff --git a/lib/launchers/process.js b/lib/launchers/process.js
index 067cfae87..3ba8bce1e 100644
--- a/lib/launchers/process.js
+++ b/lib/launchers/process.js
@@ -134,6 +134,17 @@ var ProcessLauncher = function(spawn, tempDir, timer) {
 
     log.warn('%s was not killed in %d ms, sending SIGKILL.', self.name, killTimeout);
     self._process.kill('SIGKILL');
+
+    // NOTE: https://github.com/karma-runner/karma/pull/1184
+    // NOTE: SIGKILL is just a signal.  Processes should never ignore it, but they can.
+    // If a process gets into a state where it doesn't respond in a reasonable amout of time
+    // Karma should warn, and continue as though the kill succeeded.
+    // This a certainly suboptimal, but it is better than having the test harness hang waiting
+    // for a zombie child process to exit.
+    self._killTimer = timer.setTimeout(function() {
+      log.warn('%s was not killed by SIGKILL in %d ms, continuing.', self.name, killTimeout);
+      self._onProcessExit(-1, '');
+    }, killTimeout);
   };
 };