<p>Wave propagation analysis of waveguides having defects with minimum computational costs needs a local model far away from defects and a nonlocal model close to the defects in order to capture the local effects accurately. However, the coupling of local and nonlocal models introduces spurious reflections at the interface of local and nonlocal domains. When performing a wave propagation analysis on a defective waveguide, this spurious reflection pervades throughout the length of the waveguide, introducing multiple spurious reflections arising from defect boundaries. In this paper, we propose a novel method to remove these unwanted spurious reflections through the use of a small coupling zone between local and nonlocal interfaces. Mindlin–Herrmann rod and Timoshenko beam kinematics approximation is considered for the displacement field. In the nonlocal domain, second-order Eringen’s constitutive law, and far away from crack, classical constitutive law is used to derive the governing differential equations of cracked structure. The frequency-domain spectral element method is applied for solution methodology. The approach is demonstrated on a waveguide with horizontal and vertical through-width cracks, where the cracks are modeled as an assembly of healthy waveguides with appropriate kinematics.</p>