An apparatus and method for removing stores to local variables that are not aliased by other variables or to variables which have already been removed by previous optimizations prior to performing dead store elimination optimization are provided. With the method and apparatus, instructions that include a memory reference to a local variable that is not modified by other instructions are identified. For these instructions, an identifier of the variable referenced is maintained in a data structure along with the location of the store instruction in the procedure (for a store instruction) or a load indicator (for a load instruction). The data structure is then traversed to see if there are any store instructions referencing a variable that does not have a corresponding load instruction referencing the same variable. Such store instructions are eliminated prior to performing traditional dead store elimination.