This study’s primary focus was on the homicide investigator and a death or homicide encounter. The study examined the effects of critical incident stress (CIS) on the death investigator exposed to the murder of a child. In review of previous studies it was expected that exposure to the violence of a child murder would be a significant contributor to the manifest stress in homicide investigators. If so, the death investigator is then considered a secondary victim of the child homicide. Two hypotheses were tested. First, homicide investigators would exhibit more stress-related symptoms than a normative sample of adult non-patients. Second, a significant portion of the stress experienced by homicide investigators would be attributed to the traumatic stimuli at the scene of a child homicide. The study consisted of 67 participants actively involved in the business of investigating death by homicide, such as detectives, criminalists, and personnel from the medical examiner’s office. Findings revealed that investigators participating in the study exhibited more stress-related symptoms than the comparison group. The investigators reported more stress than the average citizen, but not so much as to become significantly impaired. The study suggested future exploration of the effects of chronic exposure to toxic stress by death investigators. Appendix and references