AS3 replacement for removeMovieClip

In AS2, if i have a movieClip c and a reference to it called b, if i remove c and trace b it will return null
Now, the As2 to 3 migration says that the replacement for removeMovieClip is removeChild, however this dont do the same thing, only removes it from a display list
So,if i want to delete all the references to the movieClip in memory, i think they way is to manually do it, however, for dynamic content sometimes i dont know what are the references for it
So, what is the best way to loop into a entire swf looking for references of my movieClip and making eachReference = null ?
I mean, i know how to do it to stuff in the main displayList, but if there is some reference out of any display list?
Does it make sense?Thanks