diff --git a/src/routing/static-route-manager.cc b/src/routing/static-route-manager.cc
index 3c37389cf..62dfc5136 100644
--- a/src/routing/static-route-manager.cc
+++ b/src/routing/static-route-manager.cc
@@ -56,6 +56,16 @@ SPFVertex::SPFVertex (StaticRouterLSA* lsa) :
 
 SPFVertex::~SPFVertex ()
 {
+    for ( t_listOfSPFVertex::iterator i = m_children.begin ();
+      i != m_children.end ();
+      i++)
+    {
+      SPFVertex *p = *i;
+      delete p;
+      p = 0;
+      *i = 0;
+    }
+  m_children.clear();
 }
 
 StaticRouteManagerLSDB::~StaticRouteManagerLSDB()
@@ -502,7 +512,7 @@ StaticRouteManager::SPFCalculate(Ipv4Address root)
   // Second stage of SPF calculation procedure's  
   // NOTYET:  ospf_spf_process_stubs (area, area->spf, new_table);
 
-  DeleteSPFVertexChain(m_spfroot);  
+  delete m_spfroot;
   m_spfroot = 0;
 }
 
@@ -622,15 +632,6 @@ StaticRouteManager::SPFVertexAddParent(SPFVertex* v)
   v->m_parent->m_children.push_back(v);
 }
 
-void
-StaticRouteManager::DeleteSPFVertexChain(SPFVertex* spfroot)
-{
-  // spfroot is the root of all SPFVertex created during the SPF process
-  // each vertex has a list of children
-  // Recursively, delete all of the SPFVertex children of each SPFVertex
-  // then delete root itself
-}
-
 } // namespace ns3
 
 #ifdef RUN_SELF_TESTS
@@ -819,12 +820,11 @@ StaticRouteManagerTest::RunTests (void)
   srmlsdb->Insert(lsa3->m_linkStateId, lsa3);
   NS_ASSERT(lsa2 == srmlsdb->GetLSA(lsa2->m_linkStateId));
 
-  // We need a dummy node to populate the routing tables
-  Ptr<StaticRouterTestNode> n2 = Create<StaticRouterTestNode> ();
-
   // XXX next, calculate routes based on the manually created LSDB
   StaticRouteManager* srm = new StaticRouteManager();
-  srm->DebugUseLsdb (srmlsdb);
+  srm->DebugUseLsdb (srmlsdb);  // manually add in an LSDB
+  // Note-- this will succeed without any nodes in the topology
+  // because the NodeList is empty
   srm->DebugSPFCalculate(lsa0->m_linkStateId);  // node n0
 
   // This delete clears the srm, which deletes the LSDB, which clears 
diff --git a/src/routing/static-route-manager.h b/src/routing/static-route-manager.h
index 40105d464..2f47d0b40 100644
--- a/src/routing/static-route-manager.h
+++ b/src/routing/static-route-manager.h
@@ -133,7 +133,6 @@ private:
   int SPFNexthopCalculation (SPFVertex* v, SPFVertex* w, 
     StaticRouterLinkRecord* l, uint32_t distance);
   void SPFVertexAddParent(SPFVertex* v);
-  void DeleteSPFVertexChain(SPFVertex* spfroot);
   StaticRouterLinkRecord* SPFGetNextLink(SPFVertex* v, SPFVertex* w, 
     StaticRouterLinkRecord* prev_link);
   void SPFIntraAddRouter(SPFVertex* v);