"What was extremely sad was made doubly bad because she wasn't with us - it was the first time she had been out of my sight in 13 weeks," Mrs Bowman told BBC News Online.
The Bowmans were preparing for Nicole's christening and a friend had offered to take care of her through the Saturday afternoon and overnight in early September 1990, so they could shop and make preparations.
"On the Sunday morning at 7.30 the doorbell rang and outside there were two police cars. They told us our daughter was dead," said Mrs Bowman.
At that stage the police could not tell the Bowmans anything about the circumstances, only that the death was unexplained and possibly suspicious.
They launched an inquiry which meant the couple were not allowed to go to their friend's house or see their baby.
Nobody to blame
It was not until that evening when police investigations were complete that they were taken to the mortuary at Kingston Hospital to see Nicole.
"We were very fortunate because one of the paediatricians there, Dr Wilson, has a special interest in SIDS and he was able to talk to us and answer our questions and tell us that nobody is to blame - it just happens."
Nicole had been a normal baby, fit and well and had taken a bottle at 0400GMT.
"That was how they concluded that she had died between four and seven and the inquest found that it was cot death," Mrs Bowman said.
"I'd been vaguely aware of cot death when I was pregnant, I remember reading something about mattresses - but 10 years ago we didn't know so much about the risks."
Since Nicole's death the Bowmans have had two more children and have regularly raised funds for the Foundation for the Study of Infant Death.
"The more we can do to help find some of the answers the better," Mrs Bowman explained.
"There are a lot of parents who think that as long as they put their baby to sleep on its back then it's never going to die of cot death.
"It's got to be rammed home to them that things like the temperature have got to be taken into account."
Many parents will take children indoors still wrapped up warmly after being outside and won't want to disturb them to loosen their clothing, she pointed out.
"I see parents with their kids asleep in the corner and it won't occur to them to take off a blanket or a hat or unzip them to stop them overheating."