diff --git a/search/document_store.go b/search/document_store.go
index 581670324dfd32bfe6faee4547aa49eb9e754795..3e4c440d4c74116fcd106391939580f5ba80277d 100644
--- a/search/document_store.go
+++ b/search/document_store.go
@@ -26,8 +26,11 @@ type DocumentStore struct {
 }
 
 // NewDocumentStore purpose:
+//
 //	create a document store index to write e.g. orders then allow one to search them
+//
 // parameters:
+//
 //	name must be the complete openSearch index name e.g. "uafrica-v3-orders"
 //	tmpl must be your document data struct consisting of public fields as:
 //		Xxx string `json:"<name>" search:"keyword|text|long|date"`	(can later add more types)
@@ -141,6 +144,7 @@ func (ds *DocumentStore) Write(id string, data interface{}) error {
 
 // Search
 // Return:
+//
 //	docs will be a slice of the DocumentStore data type
 func (ds *DocumentStore) Search(query Query, limit int64) (res *SearchResponseHits, err error) {
 	if ds == nil {
@@ -242,15 +246,23 @@ func (ds *DocumentStore) Delete(id string) (err error) {
 	if ds == nil {
 		return errors.Errorf("document store == nil")
 	}
+
+	var delResponse *opensearchapi.Response
+
+	defer func() {
+		if delResponse != nil && delResponse.Body != nil {
+			delResponse.Body.Close()
+		}
+	}()
+
 	del := opensearchapi.DeleteRequest{
 		Index:        ds.name,
 		DocumentType: "_doc",
 		DocumentID:   id,
 	}
-	delResponse, err := del.Do(context.Background(), ds.w.client)
+	delResponse, err = del.Do(context.Background(), ds.w.client)
 	if err != nil {
-		err = errors.Wrapf(err, "failed to del document")
-		return
+		return errors.Wrapf(err, "failed to del document")
 	}
 
 	switch delResponse.StatusCode {
@@ -259,8 +271,8 @@ func (ds *DocumentStore) Delete(id string) (err error) {
 	case http.StatusNoContent:
 	default:
 		resBody, _ := ioutil.ReadAll(delResponse.Body)
-		err = errors.Errorf("Del failed with HTTP status %v: %s", delResponse.StatusCode, string(resBody))
-		return
+		return errors.Errorf("Del failed with HTTP status %v: %s", delResponse.StatusCode, string(resBody))
 	}
+
 	return nil
 }