In 1975, Rorschach was on a case involving the kidnapping of Blair Roche. Her kidnapper, Gerald Grice, demanded large amounts of money as he thought Blair's parents had a large fortune. However, her father was only a bus driver. Rorschach promised that he would bring her back unharmed. Therefore he investigated her kidnapping for "personal reasons".
Rorschach located the kidnapper's hideout in an old dressmaker's shop, outside which were two German Shepherds wrestling over a bone. Rorschach searched the place and found charred pajamas in a small furnace, a meat cleaver and cutting board. As Rorschach looked at the dogs through a window, he realized that the bone the dogs were fighting over was a human femur. Therefore he concluded that the kidnapper had murdered Blair, chopped her into pieces and fed her remains to his dogs.
The shock made Rorschach snap. He went outside with the meat cleaver and killed the dogs. When Grice returned, Rorschach threw the dog's corpses at him. He then handcuffed Grice to a pipe, gave him a saw and set the shop on fire. He gave Grice the choice to either cut his arm off knowing that he wouldn't be able to cut through the cuffs in time, or burn to death. Rorschach watched outside for an hour as the building burned, but no-one escaped.
Although Blair Roche never appeared in the Watchmen, her murder was a turning point in Rorschach's character. On the night he avenged her murder he declared that his civilian identity Walter Kovacs no longer existed, solely relying on the merciless persona of Rorschach.
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