diff --git a/src/defrag-hash.c b/src/defrag-hash.c
index 9cb377e5b3..be2fd456ac 100644
--- a/src/defrag-hash.c
+++ b/src/defrag-hash.c
@@ -526,7 +526,7 @@ DefragTracker *DefragGetTrackerFromHash (Packet *p)
     dt = hb->head;
 
     /* see if this is the tracker we are looking for */
-    if (DefragTrackerCompare(dt, p) == 0) {
+    if (dt->remove || DefragTrackerCompare(dt, p) == 0) {
         DefragTracker *pdt = NULL; /* previous tracker */
 
         while (dt) {