diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index c325e4d619d..98043e4d0ca 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -35,14 +35,20 @@ Detailed Change List
 --------------------
 
 New Features
+ 1.
 
 Changes in runtime behavior
+ 1.
 
 Optimizations 
+ 1.
 
 Bug Fixes
-
+ 1. SOLR-87: Parsing of synonym files did not correctly handle escaped
+    whitespace such as \r\n\t\b\f. (yonik)
+  
 Other Changes
+ 1.
 
 ================== Release 1.1.0, YYYYMMDD ==================
 
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/solr/util/StrUtils.java b/src/java/org/apache/solr/util/StrUtils.java
index 3030c3df9c2..b92abcdc294 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/solr/util/StrUtils.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/solr/util/StrUtils.java
@@ -93,11 +93,11 @@ public class StrUtils {
         ch = s.charAt(pos++);
         if (decode) {
           switch(ch) {
-            case 'n' : ch='\n';
-            case 't' : ch='\t';
-            case 'r' : ch='\r';
-            case 'b' : ch='\b';
-            case 'f' : ch='\f';
+            case 'n' : ch='\n'; break;
+            case 't' : ch='\t'; break;
+            case 'r' : ch='\r'; break;
+            case 'b' : ch='\b'; break;
+            case 'f' : ch='\f'; break;
           }
         }
       }
@@ -134,11 +134,11 @@ public class StrUtils {
         ch = s.charAt(pos++);
         if (decode) {
           switch(ch) {
-            case 'n' : ch='\n';
-            case 't' : ch='\t';
-            case 'r' : ch='\r';
-            case 'b' : ch='\b';
-            case 'f' : ch='\f';
+            case 'n' : ch='\n'; break;
+            case 't' : ch='\t'; break;
+            case 'r' : ch='\r'; break;
+            case 'b' : ch='\b'; break;
+            case 'f' : ch='\f'; break;
           }
         }
       }
diff --git a/src/test/org/apache/solr/util/TestUtils.java b/src/test/org/apache/solr/util/TestUtils.java
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..31beb5bb33a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/org/apache/solr/util/TestUtils.java
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.solr.util;
+
+import junit.framework.TestCase;
+
+import java.util.List;
+
+/**
+ * @author yonik
+ * @version $Id$
+ */
+public class TestUtils extends TestCase {
+  public static void testSplitEscaping() {
+    List<String> arr = StrUtils.splitSmart("\\r\\n:\\t\\f\\b", ":", true);
+    assertEquals(2,arr.size());
+    assertEquals("\r\n",arr.get(0));
+    assertEquals("\t\f\b",arr.get(1));
+
+    arr = StrUtils.splitSmart("\\r\\n:\\t\\f\\b", ":", false);
+    assertEquals(2,arr.size());
+    assertEquals("\\r\\n",arr.get(0));
+    assertEquals("\\t\\f\\b",arr.get(1));
+
+    arr = StrUtils.splitWS("\\r\\n \\t\\f\\b", true);
+    assertEquals(2,arr.size());
+    assertEquals("\r\n",arr.get(0));
+    assertEquals("\t\f\b",arr.get(1));
+
+    arr = StrUtils.splitWS("\\r\\n \\t\\f\\b", false);
+    assertEquals(2,arr.size());
+    assertEquals("\\r\\n",arr.get(0));
+    assertEquals("\\t\\f\\b",arr.get(1));
+
+    arr = StrUtils.splitSmart("\\:foo\\::\\:bar\\:", ":", true);
+    assertEquals(2,arr.size());
+    assertEquals(":foo:",arr.get(0));
+    assertEquals(":bar:",arr.get(1));
+
+    arr = StrUtils.splitWS("\\ foo\\  \\ bar\\ ", true);
+    assertEquals(2,arr.size());
+    assertEquals(" foo ",arr.get(0));
+    assertEquals(" bar ",arr.get(1));
+  }
+
+
+
+}