Victimizing The Victim?

Was apparent kidnapping victim, Shawn Hornbeck, victimized again by media coverage that seemed to blame him for not escaping?
One holiday season, I was covering a news story about a fire that had killed three children while their mother (who was out buying milk) had left them alone for about 15 minutes.
I was asking her how she felt when she turned to me and said, "Lady, my three children are dead and you're asking me how I feel?"
I thought about what she was saying, then apologized and left. That was probably not the best professional decision, but it was the right personal decision.
There were other phrasings I could have used, but my questions and observations stilll would have been invasive, (perhaps) judgmental, and speculative. The situations are different and each story varies, but the overriding question is whether there are instances when every question does not need to be asked, situations when speculation and curiosity and the need to get the full-story just go too far and unnecessarily add to someone's pain?
Do you think interviewers went too far when they repeatedly asked Shawn Hornbeck and his parents why he didn't escape?
-- Professor Maida Odom