diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index df07ac2..3ec16b3 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 - When terminating a connection using `distant manager kill`, the connection is
   now properly dropped, resulting servers waiting to terminate due to
   `--shutdown lonely=N` to now shutdown accordingly
+- Zombies from spawned servers via `distant launch manager://localhost` are now
+  properly terminated by checking the exit status of processes
 
 ## [0.20.0-alpha.13]
 
diff --git a/src/cli/commands/manager/handlers.rs b/src/cli/commands/manager/handlers.rs
index 74d7200..8186312 100644
--- a/src/cli/commands/manager/handlers.rs
+++ b/src/cli/commands/manager/handlers.rs
@@ -16,8 +16,8 @@ use distant_core::net::manager::{ConnectHandler, LaunchHandler};
 use distant_core::protocol::PROTOCOL_VERSION;
 use log::*;
 use tokio::io::{AsyncBufReadExt, BufReader};
-use tokio::process::{Child, Command};
-use tokio::sync::Mutex;
+use tokio::process::Command;
+use tokio::sync::{watch, Mutex};
 
 use crate::options::{BindAddress, ClientLaunchConfig};
 
@@ -33,15 +33,28 @@ fn invalid(label: &str) -> io::Error {
 
 /// Supports launching locally through the manager as defined by `manager://...`
 pub struct ManagerLaunchHandler {
-    servers: Mutex<Vec<Child>>,
+    shutdown: watch::Sender<bool>,
 }
 
 impl ManagerLaunchHandler {
     pub fn new() -> Self {
         Self {
-            servers: Mutex::new(Vec::new()),
+            shutdown: watch::channel(false).0,
         }
     }
+
+    /// Triggers shutdown of any tasks still checking that spawned servers have terminated.
+    pub fn shutdown(&self) {
+        let _ = self.shutdown.send(true);
+    }
+}
+
+impl Drop for ManagerLaunchHandler {
+    /// Terminates waiting for any servers spawned by this handler, which in turn should
+    /// shut them down.
+    fn drop(&mut self) {
+        self.shutdown();
+    }
 }
 
 #[async_trait]
@@ -138,9 +151,34 @@ impl LaunchHandler for ManagerLaunchHandler {
             match stdout.read_line(&mut line).await {
                 Ok(n) if n > 0 => {
                     if let Ok(destination) = line[..n].trim().parse::<Destination>() {
-                        // Store a reference to the server so we can terminate them
-                        // when this handler is dropped
-                        self.servers.lock().await.push(child);
+                        let mut rx = self.shutdown.subscribe();
+
+                        // Wait for the process to complete in a task. We have to do this
+                        // to properly check the exit status, otherwise if the server
+                        // self-terminates then we get a ZOMBIE process! Oh no!
+                        //
+                        // This also replaces the need to store the children within the
+                        // handler itself and instead uses a watch update to kill the
+                        // task in advance in the case where the child hasn't terminated.
+                        tokio::spawn(async move {
+                            // We don't actually care about the result, just that we're done
+                            loop {
+                                tokio::select! {
+                                    result = rx.changed() => {
+                                        if result.is_err() {
+                                            break;
+                                        }
+
+                                        if *rx.borrow_and_update() {
+                                            break;
+                                        }
+                                    }
+                                    _ = child.wait() => {
+                                        break;
+                                    }
+                                }
+                            }
+                        });
 
                         break Ok(destination);
                     } else {