How do you perceive my friend's strange obsession with Sandy Hook?

An old childhood friend of mine has had a peculiar fascination with the Sandy Hook shooting since it happened four years ago. She’s always been into kind of morbid stuff like crime documentaries, which isn’t that weird but I feel like she takes this way too far and it honestly, it gives me the absolute creeps.

She has read just about every book and every article written about the killer and the horrible thing he did. She also used to entertain some pretty distasteful (in my opinion) conspiracy theories about it being a hoax and the families being “grief actors” etc.

In the year after the shooting, she also drove 5 hours to Sandy Hook from our hometown at least twice to rubberneck the tragedy and try to meet people who were affected—law enforcement, victims’ families, survivors, etc. I guess she would just hang out in coffee shops or other public places until someone who looked familiar showed up and would ask them questions. It’s a small town so it wouldn’t be long until a familiar face would turn up. She’s not a journalist nor is she writing a story or working on a project about the event. She’s just an obsessed “fan” of sorts who has a keen fascination with this particular human wreckage.

In the past few years, she’s connected with one or two of the victims’ parents on FB, and I guess keeps in touch with them here in there. From what she tells me, it seems like she messages them to weedle out information and gruesome details under the guise of “concern”. (Gross) Frankly, I think her behavior is exploitive, and her concern is disingenuous. These people’s tragedy is a spectacle to her and her fascination is more from morbid curiosity than wanting to “help” them.

Worse yet, my partners’ niece attends school where Sandy Hook used to be (they tore down the old school and rebuilt a nice new one) so it kind of hits close to home. Every time she posts a status about Sandy Hook or posts something about the families, I feel kind of sick and uncomfortable.

Am I wrong to think this is inappropriate and potentially psychologically exploitive of her? I can’t quite put my finger on it but what she’s doing just seems…wrong.