Purpose: The effect on children of the murder of a parent by the other parent, uxoricide, is immediate and devastating. Usually in a single act the child loses both parents. The victim is dead and the other parent is either also dead as in the case of homicide/suicide, a fugitive, or in the custody of the police. The purpose of this study is to add to the understanding of the experience of uxoricide from the perspective of an adult who had this experience as a child. Although seemingly rare, the authors will present evidence indicating the incidence of uxoricide is similar to childhood leukemia. If one assumes that the lives of children of uxoricide are disrupted nearly as much as those with cancer, the extent of the problem is obvious. Yet any comparison of the attention given these two groups of vulnerable children by researchers demonstrates a significant disparity.

Method: Data were collected with two interviews from 45 informants. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using hermeneutic phenomenology.

Findings: The themes that have emerged include violence prior to the homicides, substance abuse, experiences of intimate partner abuse in later personal relationships, a surprising lack of anger regarding the perpetrator, the homicide or their later life circumstances and a beginning description of paths to recovery. The participants struggled with ways to make sense of the event that changed their childhoods. They relied on religion, a strong sense of family and family continuity, and a belief that alcoholics and mentally ill people are not responsible for what they do. In general these adult survivors have an in-depth thoughtful perspective as the result of living through this trauma and their subsequent childhood, that sometimes continued to be traumatic.