Why isn't C freeing memory from malloc'd char* set by strtok?

Question

This function reads the values from a text file with space separated values, into a 2d array. When I run it, works just fine - but a memory leak check through Valgrind confirms Xcode's suspicions that "char *splitString" is never freed, the two times which it is called. I don't understand this, considering my "char *buffer" seems to be freed just fine. Any help is super appreciated!

int** readMatrixFile(char* inFileName, int** matrix, int sizeY, int sizeX)
{
    FILE* matrixFP;
    int ii=0, jj=0, fileValid = 1;
    char *buffer, *splitString;
    const char delim[]=" \n\r";

    matrixFP = fopen(inFileName, "r");
    if(matrixFP != NULL)
    {
        /*Check if file is the same size as specified by the command line
         *assumed valid until the file is checked*/
        splitString = malloc(100*sizeof(char)); <------where allocated
        buffer = malloc(5000*sizeof(char));
        do
        {
            fgets(buffer, 5000, matrixFP);
            jj=0;
            splitString = strtok(buffer, delim);
            while(splitString != NULL)
            {
                jj++;
                splitString = strtok(NULL, delim);
            }
            if(jj!=sizeX)
            {
                fileValid = 0;
            }
            ii++;
        } while(!feof(matrixFP));
        if(ii != sizeY || buffer==NULL)
        {
            fileValid = 0;
        }

        free(splitString); <-----Appears to do nothing?
        free(buffer);

        if(fileValid) /*Files match to specified command line values*/
        {
            ii=0;
            rewind(matrixFP);
            matrix = (int**)malloc(sizeY * sizeof(int *));
            do
            {
                matrix[ii] = (int*)malloc(sizeX * sizeof(int));
                jj=0;
                do
                {
                    fscanf(matrixFP, "%d", &matrix[ii][jj]);
                    jj++;
                } while(jj<sizeX);
                ii++;
            } while(ii<sizeY && !feof(matrixFP));
        }
        else
        {
            printf("Error: File does not match size specified by the command line\n");
        }
        fclose(matrixFP);
    }
    else
    {
        perror("Error: File does not exist or is invalid");
        matrix = NULL;
    }

    return matrix;
}

And Valgrind output:

==14087== Memcheck, a memory error detector
==14087== Copyright (C) 2002-2012, and GNU GPL'd, by Julian Seward et al.
==14087== Using Valgrind-3.8.1 and LibVEX; rerun with -h for copyright info
==14087== Command: ./pmms a b 10 3 10
==14087== 
/*irrelevent program output*/ 
==14087== 
==14087== HEAP SUMMARY:
==14087==     in use at exit: 200 bytes in 2 blocks
==14087==   total heap usage: 21 allocs, 19 frees, 11,680 bytes allocated
==14087== 
==14087== 100 bytes in 1 blocks are definitely lost in loss record 1 of 2
==14087==    at 0x4A06A2E: malloc (vg_replace_malloc.c:270)
==14087==    by 0x400B55: readMatrixFile (matrix_reader.c:35)
==14087==    by 0x40095E: main (pmms.c:23)
==14087== 
==14087== 100 bytes in 1 blocks are definitely lost in loss record 2 of 2
==14087==    at 0x4A06A2E: malloc (vg_replace_malloc.c:270)
==14087==    by 0x400B55: readMatrixFile (matrix_reader.c:35)
==14087==    by 0x400982: main (pmms.c:24)
==14087== 
==14087== LEAK SUMMARY:
==14087==    definitely lost: 200 bytes in 2 blocks
==14087==    indirectly lost: 0 bytes in 0 blocks
==14087==      possibly lost: 0 bytes in 0 blocks
==14087==    still reachable: 0 bytes in 0 blocks
==14087==         suppressed: 0 bytes in 0 blocks
==14087== 
==14087== For counts of detected and suppressed errors, rerun with: -v
==14087== ERROR SUMMARY: 2 errors from 2 contexts (suppressed: 6 from 6)

Answer 1

You change the value of splitString here:

            splitString = strtok(NULL, delim);

and here:

            splitString = strtok(buffer, delim);

so it no longer points to the memory block to be freed, so the free() will do nothing, as by the time this line is reached, splitString will be NULL, and free(NULL) is defined to do nothing.