I don't want to sound callous, but after reading the outpouring of support and empathy in that article, I can't help but think:
What about all the men that have been arrested for public masturbation, and then have been made to register as sex offenders, sent to prison where they have been raped, beaten, stabbed, killed or had their genitals removed with a prison shank?
Where has EVER been the outpouring of kindness, sympathy and empathy for a man caught masturbating in public? It is NOWHERE. You are ONLY seeing this because in this case, the offender is a woman, and you saw it before she killed herself, too.
Seriously, she was performing a solo sex act in public, in the vicinity of children, for God's sake! You are NOT RIGHT in the head if you think that's acceptable to do, gender notwithstanding. She is well past the age where some casual exhibitionism is understandable as a part of growing up; then, too, it's never acceptable to do in front of other people's children.