diff --git a/audioread/ffdec.py b/audioread/ffdec.py
index 77fa7e4..e742271 100644
--- a/audioread/ffdec.py
+++ b/audioread/ffdec.py
@@ -265,11 +265,20 @@ def close(self):
             # `returncode`.
             self.proc.poll()
 
+            # Close the stdout and stderr streams that were opened by Popen,
+            # which should occur regardless of if the process terminated
+            # cleanly.
+            self.proc.stdout.close()
+            self.proc.stderr.close()
+
             # Kill the process if it is still running.
             if self.proc.returncode is None:
                 self.proc.kill()
                 self.proc.wait()
-                self.devnull.close()
+
+        # Close the handle to os.devnull, which is opened regardless of if
+        # a subprocess is successfully created
+        self.devnull.close()
 
     def __del__(self):
         self.close()