diff --git a/docs/release-notes/version-4.5.21.rst b/docs/release-notes/version-4.5.21.rst
index ecc4b176..394d30ea 100644
--- a/docs/release-notes/version-4.5.21.rst
+++ b/docs/release-notes/version-4.5.21.rst
@@ -17,6 +17,14 @@ Bugs Fixed
   deploying mod_wsgi to MacOS X. You need to use the ``pip install``
   method.
 
+* Speculated that crashes on daemon process shutdown were being caused
+  by a race condition around accessing Python C API when interpreter
+  was being destroyed. There was a check in place to avoid this but may
+  not have been robust enough depending on how memory cache worked
+  for threads running across multi core machine. Now use a dedicated
+  thread mutex to avoid race condition between main process thread and
+  Python interpreter deadlock detection thread.
+
 Features Changed
 ----------------
 
diff --git a/src/server/mod_wsgi.c b/src/server/mod_wsgi.c
index 9368fabb..d876299a 100644
--- a/src/server/mod_wsgi.c
+++ b/src/server/mod_wsgi.c
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ static apr_array_header_t *wsgi_daemon_list = NULL;
 
 static apr_pool_t *wsgi_parent_pool = NULL;
 
-static int volatile wsgi_daemon_shutdown = 0;
+int volatile wsgi_daemon_shutdown = 0;
 static int volatile wsgi_daemon_graceful = 0;
 
 #if defined(MOD_WSGI_WITH_DAEMONS)
@@ -4288,6 +4288,7 @@ static void wsgi_python_child_init(apr_pool_t *p)
 #if APR_HAS_THREADS
     apr_thread_mutex_create(&wsgi_interp_lock, APR_THREAD_MUTEX_UNNESTED, p);
     apr_thread_mutex_create(&wsgi_module_lock, APR_THREAD_MUTEX_UNNESTED, p);
+    apr_thread_mutex_create(&wsgi_shutdown_lock, APR_THREAD_MUTEX_UNNESTED, p);
 #endif
 
     /*
@@ -8954,11 +8955,15 @@ static void *wsgi_deadlock_thread(apr_thread_t *thd, void *data)
     while (1) {
         apr_sleep(apr_time_from_sec(1));
 
+        apr_thread_mutex_lock(wsgi_shutdown_lock);
+
         if (!wsgi_daemon_shutdown) {
             gilstate = PyGILState_Ensure();
             PyGILState_Release(gilstate);
         }
 
+        apr_thread_mutex_unlock(wsgi_shutdown_lock);
+
         apr_thread_mutex_lock(wsgi_monitor_lock);
         wsgi_deadlock_shutdown_time = apr_time_now();
         wsgi_deadlock_shutdown_time += wsgi_deadlock_timeout;
diff --git a/src/server/wsgi_daemon.h b/src/server/wsgi_daemon.h
index fa9ca635..11013307 100644
--- a/src/server/wsgi_daemon.h
+++ b/src/server/wsgi_daemon.h
@@ -185,6 +185,8 @@ extern WSGIDaemonThread *wsgi_worker_threads;
 
 extern WSGIThreadStack *wsgi_worker_stack;
 
+extern int volatile wsgi_daemon_shutdown;
+
 #endif
 
 /* ------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
diff --git a/src/server/wsgi_interp.c b/src/server/wsgi_interp.c
index 3c0aa099..536e1949 100644
--- a/src/server/wsgi_interp.c
+++ b/src/server/wsgi_interp.c
@@ -1986,10 +1986,22 @@ apr_status_t wsgi_python_term(void)
     if (!PyImport_AddModule("dummy_threading"))
         PyErr_Clear();
 
-    /* Shutdown Python interpreter completely. */
+    /*
+     * Shutdown Python interpreter completely. Just to be safe
+     * flag daemon shutdown here again and do it within a lock
+     * which is then shared with deadlock thread used for the
+     * daemon. This is just to avoid any risk there is a race
+     * condition.
+     */
+
+    apr_thread_mutex_lock(wsgi_shutdown_lock);
+
+    wsgi_daemon_shutdown++;
 
     Py_Finalize();
 
+    apr_thread_mutex_unlock(wsgi_shutdown_lock);
+
     wsgi_python_initialized = 0;
 
     ap_log_error(APLOG_MARK, APLOG_INFO, 0, wsgi_server,
@@ -2336,6 +2348,7 @@ void wsgi_python_init(apr_pool_t *p)
 
 #if APR_HAS_THREADS
 apr_thread_mutex_t* wsgi_interp_lock = NULL;
+apr_thread_mutex_t* wsgi_shutdown_lock = NULL;
 #endif
 
 PyObject *wsgi_interpreters = NULL;
diff --git a/src/server/wsgi_interp.h b/src/server/wsgi_interp.h
index 116d24e1..6fad25b8 100644
--- a/src/server/wsgi_interp.h
+++ b/src/server/wsgi_interp.h
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ extern PyObject *wsgi_interpreters;
 
 #if APR_HAS_THREADS
 extern apr_thread_mutex_t *wsgi_interp_lock;
+extern apr_thread_mutex_t* wsgi_shutdown_lock;
 #endif
 
 extern void wsgi_python_version(void);