diff --git a/streamed_mutation.cc b/streamed_mutation.cc
index a79def5dcb..1dc56554ca 100644
--- a/streamed_mutation.cc
+++ b/streamed_mutation.cc
@@ -217,10 +217,6 @@ std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, const mutation_fragment& mf) {
     return os;
 }
 
-streamed_mutation make_empty_streamed_mutation(schema_ptr s, dht::decorated_key key, streamed_mutation::forwarding fwd) {
-    return streamed_mutation_from_mutation(mutation(std::move(s), std::move(key)), fwd);
-}
-
 streamed_mutation streamed_mutation_from_mutation(mutation m, streamed_mutation::forwarding fwd)
 {
     class reader final : public streamed_mutation::impl {
diff --git a/streamed_mutation.hh b/streamed_mutation.hh
index c95a369af0..02ae831e23 100644
--- a/streamed_mutation.hh
+++ b/streamed_mutation.hh
@@ -738,8 +738,6 @@ streamed_mutation streamed_mutation_from_mutation(mutation, streamed_mutation::f
 //Requires all streamed_mutations to have the same schema.
 streamed_mutation merge_mutations(std::vector<streamed_mutation>);
 
-streamed_mutation make_empty_streamed_mutation(schema_ptr, dht::decorated_key, streamed_mutation::forwarding fwd = streamed_mutation::forwarding::no);
-
 // range_tombstone_stream is a helper object that simplifies producing a stream
 // of range tombstones and merging it with a stream of clustering rows.
 // Tombstones are added using apply() and retrieved using get_next().