Apparently, there was a /Users/myusername/local folder that contained a include with node and lib with node and node_modules. How and why this was created instead of in my /usr/local folder, I do not know.

Deleting these local references fixed the phantom v0.6.1-pre. If anyone has an explanation, I'll choose that as the correct answer.

EDIT:

You may need to do the additional instructions as well:

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/{lib/node{,/.npm,_modules},bin,share/man}/{npm*,node*,man1/node*}

which is the equivalent of (same as above)...

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/npm /usr/local/share/man/man1/node* /usr/local/lib/dtrace/node.d ~/.npm ~/.node-gyp 

or (same as above) broken down...

To completely uninstall node + npm is to do the following:

1. go to /usr/local/lib and delete any node and node_modules
2. go to /usr/local/include and delete any node and node_modules directory
3. if you installed with brew install node, then run brew uninstall node in your terminal
4. check your Home directory for any local or lib or include folders, and delete any node or node_modules from there
5. go to /usr/local/bin and delete any node executable

You may also need to do:

sudo rm -rf /opt/local/bin/node /opt/local/include/node /opt/local/lib/node_modulessudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/npm /usr/local/share/man/man1/node.1 /usr/local/lib/dtrace/node.d

Additionally, NVM modifies the PATH variable in $HOME/.bashrc, which must be reverted manually.

Then download nvm and follow the instructions to install node. The latest versions of node come with npm, I believe, but you can also reinstall that as well.

For brew users, OSX:

To remove:

brew uninstall node; # or `brew uninstall --force node` which removes all versionsbrew cleanup;rm -f /usr/local/bin/npm /usr/local/lib/dtrace/node.d;rm -rf ~/.npm;

To install:

brew install node;which node # => /usr/local/bin/nodeexport NODE_PATH='/usr/local/lib/node_modules' # <--- add this ~/.bashrc

You can run brew info node for more details regarding your node installs.

consider using NVM instead of brew

NVM (node version manager) is a portable solution for managing multiple versions of node

https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm

> nvm uninstall v4.1.0> nvm install v8.1.2> nvm use v8.1.2> nvm list         v4.2.0         v5.8.0        v6.11.0->       v8.1.2         system

you can use this with AVN to automatically switch versions as you hop between different projects with different node dependencies.

I know this post is a little dated but just wanted to share the commands that worked for me in Terminal when removing Node.js.

lsbom -f -l -s -pf /var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.pkg.bom | while read f; do  sudo rm /usr/local/${f}; done sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/node /usr/local/lib/node_modules /var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.*

UPDATE: 23 SEP 2016

If you're afraid of running these commands...

Thanks to jguix for this quick tutorial.

First, create an intermediate file:

lsbom -f -l -s -pf /var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.node.pkg.bom >> ~/filelist.txt

Manually review your file (located in your Home folder)

 ~/filelist.txt

Then delete the files:

cat ~/filelist.txt | while read f; do sudo rm /usr/local/${f}; donesudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/node /usr/local/lib/node_modules /var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.*

For 10.10.5 and above

Thanks Lenar Hoyt

Gist Comment Source: gistcomment-1572198

Original Gist: TonyMtz/d75101d9bdf764c890ef

lsbom -f -l -s -pf /var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.node.pkg.bom | while read f; do sudo rm /usr/local/${f}; donesudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/node /usr/local/lib/node_modules /var/db/receipts/org.nodejs.*