Clues by Sam Feb 15, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
Evil·Solved
A1
👨🎨
Adam
painter
B1
💂♂️
Barnie
guard
C1
👩🔧
Donna
mech
D1
👩🎨
Ellie
painter
A2
👮♂️
Gary
cop
B2
👨🍳
Hank
cook
C2
👨🔧
Igor
mech
D2
👨🔧
John
mech
A3
💂♂️
Kumar
guard
B3
💂♀️
Max
guard
C3
👩🍳
Nicole
cook
D3
👨💼
Ollie
clerk
A4
👷♀️
Pam
builder
B4
👩⚕️
Ruth
doctor
C4
👩⚕️
Susan
doctor
D4
👨💼
Tyler
clerk
A5
👩🌾
Uma
farmer
B5
👷♀️
Vera
builder
C5
👨🌾
Xavi
farmer
D5
👮♀️
Zoe
cop
Final Board State
This puzzle is fully solved.
All characters have been identified as innocent or criminal based on today's clues.
Final Result
Innocent 11Criminal 9Unknown 0
See how each clue leads to the final result
Answer (spoilers)
A quick reference of the final identities. For explanations, see the reasoning above.
▶ Answer list (spoilers)
Innocent · 11
[ A1 ] [ D1 ] [ C2 ] [ D2 ] [ C3 ] [ D3 ] [ A4 ] [ B4 ] [ C4 ] [ D4 ] [ B5 ]
Criminal · 9
[ B1 ] [ C1 ] [ A2 ] [ B2 ] [ A3 ] [ B3 ] [ A5 ] [ C5 ] [ D5 ]
Clues
Raw text reference from the original puzzle
Original clue texts as provided in today's puzzle. No deductions or interpretations are applied here.
▶ Raw clues (original text)
A1 · Adam
"Don't let the criminals distract you!"
B1 · Barnie
"There are more criminals in row 1 than row 4"
C1 · Donna
"Look behind you! The elephant is flying!"
D1 · Ellie
"Exactly 2 innocents to the right of Gary are neighboring Ollie"
A2 · Gary
"There's an odd number of innocents neighboring Hank"
B2 · Hank
"Exactly 1 innocent in column D is neighboring Tyler"
C2 · Igor
"Both criminals below Barnie are connected"
D2 · John
"An odd number of innocents in column B neighbor Nicole"
A3 · Kumar
"It's pink! The elephant is pink!"
B3 · Max
"There's an odd number of criminals neighboring Barnie"
C3 · Nicole
"I can't see it! Did I miss it?"
D3 · Ollie
"An odd number of innocents on the edges neighbor Hank"
A4 · Pam
"Column C is the only column with exactly 3 innocents"
B4 · Ruth
"Both criminals above Uma are connected"
C4 · Susan
"Stay focused! You can do it!"
D4 · Tyler
"There's an odd number of criminals neighboring Max"
A5 · Uma
"Look behind you! It's an elephant!"
B5 · Vera
"There's an equal number of criminals in rows 1 and 2"
C5 · Xavi
"There's an equal number of criminals in rows 1 and 3"
D5 · Zoe
"Did you count everyone on row 6?"
Answer Explanation
Full reasoning transcript (reference)
This is the full reasoning transcript for today's puzzle. For an interactive walkthrough, use Replay above.
▶ View full transcript (16 steps)
C2 · Igor → INNOCENT, D2 · John → INNOCENT
Because: Gary is at A2, so the people to the right of Gary are Hank at B2, Igor at C2, and John at D2. Ollie is at D3, and among those three, only Igor at C2 and John at D2 are neighbors of Ollie (they are diagonally adjacent and directly above, respectively), while Hank at B2 is too far away to be a neighbor. Ellie’s clue says that exactly 2 innocents to the right of Gary are neighboring Ollie, and there are only two people to the right of Gary who neighbor Ollie at all. That forces both of those neighbors, Igor and John, to be the two innocents mentioned. Therefore, we can determine that C2 Igor is INNOCENT and D2 John is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"Exactly 2 innocents to the right of Gary are neighboring Ollie" — Ellie (D1)
B5 · Vera → INNOCENT
Because: Below Barnie in column B are Hank (B2), Max (B3), Ruth (B4), and Vera (B5). Igor’s clue says there are exactly two criminals among these four, and they must be connected, so the only possible criminal pairs are (B2,B3), (B3,B4), or (B4,B5). John’s clue counts the column B neighbors of Nicole (C3), which are exactly B2, B3, and B4, and says an odd number of those three are innocents. If the criminal pair were (B4,B5), then B2 and B3 would be innocents and B4 would be a criminal, giving exactly two innocents among B2–B4, which is even and not allowed, so the pair (B4,B5) is impossible. Since Vera can only be a criminal in that impossible pair, Vera must be innocent. Therefore, we can determine that B5 Vera is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"Both criminals below Barnie are connected" — Igor (C2)
"An odd number of innocents in column B neighbor Nicole" — John (D2)
B3 · Max → CRIMINAL
Because: Below Barnie in column B are Hank at B2, Max at B3, Ruth at B4, and Vera at B5. Igor’s clue says that among these people there are exactly two criminals, and those two criminals are connected by orthogonal adjacency. Since Vera at B5 is already known to be innocent, the two criminals must be chosen from B2, B3, and B4, and the only way for two people in those three squares to be connected is for them to be the adjacent pair B2–B3 or the adjacent pair B3–B4. Either way, Max at B3 has to be one of the criminals. Therefore, we can determine that B3 Max is CRIMINAL.
Clue:
"Both criminals below Barnie are connected" — Igor (C2)
B1 · Barnie → CRIMINAL
Because: Barnie is at B1, and his neighbors are A1, C1, A2, B2, and C2. Max’s clue says the number of criminals among Barnie’s neighbors is odd, and since C2 (Igor) is INNOCENT, this means the total number of criminals in A1, C1, A2, and B2 is odd. Vera’s clue says rows 1 and 2 have an equal number of criminals; with D1, C2, and D2 already INNOCENT, the only possible criminals in row 1 are A1, B1, and C1, and the only possible criminals in row 2 are A2 and B2, so the number of criminals in A2 and B2 equals the number in A1 and C1 plus whatever Barnie is. That makes the total criminals in A1, C1, A2, and B2 equal to twice the number in A1 and C1, plus Barnie, so it is odd exactly when Barnie is a criminal. Therefore, we can determine that B1 Barnie is CRIMINAL.
Clue:
"There's an equal number of criminals in rows 1 and 2" — Vera (B5)
"There's an odd number of criminals neighboring Barnie" — Max (B3)
B2 · Hank → CRIMINAL, B4 · Ruth → INNOCENT
Because: In column B below Barnie (B1), the people are Hank at B2, Max at B3, Ruth at B4, and Vera at B5. Igor’s clue says “Both criminals below Barnie are connected,” which means there are exactly two criminals among those four, and since Max is already a criminal and Vera is already innocent, the second criminal must be either Hank or Ruth (but not both). If Ruth were the second criminal, then row 4 would contain at least one criminal, so Barnie’s clue (“There are more criminals in row 1 than row 4”) would force row 1 to have at least two criminals; then Vera’s clue (“There’s an equal number of criminals in rows 1 and 2”) would force row 2 to also have two criminals, which can only happen if Hank is a criminal. That would make Hank, Max, and Ruth all criminals below Barnie, breaking Igor’s “both criminals below Barnie” requirement, so Ruth cannot be that second criminal and Hank must be. Therefore, we can determine that B2 Hank is CRIMINAL and B4 Ruth is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"Both criminals below Barnie are connected" — Igor (C2)
"There's an equal number of criminals in rows 1 and 2" — Vera (B5)
"There are more criminals in row 1 than row 4" — Barnie (B1)
A2 · Gary → CRIMINAL, A4 · Pam → INNOCENT
Because: Look at column A above Uma: A1 Adam, A2 Gary, A3 Kumar, and A4 Pam. Ruth’s clue says there are exactly two criminals among those four, and those two criminals must be connected by a chain of orthogonally adjacent criminals. Vera’s clue says rows 1 and 2 have the same number of criminals, and we already know row 2 contains Hank as a criminal. If Gary were not a criminal, then row 2 would have only 1 criminal, so row 1 would also have only 1 criminal; that would force Adam and Donna in row 1 to be innocent, leaving Kumar and Pam as the only two criminals above Uma. That would put at least 1 criminal in row 4, so row 1 could not have more criminals than row 4 as Barnie’s clue requires, so Gary must be a criminal. Now that Gary is one of the two criminals above Uma, exactly one of Adam, Kumar, and Pam is the other criminal. Pam cannot be that other criminal, because then Adam and Kumar would be innocent, and Pam’s only orthogonal ways to connect to Gary would be through Kumar at A3 or Ruth at B4, but Ruth is already known to be innocent and Kumar would be innocent in this case, so Pam could not be connected to Gary. Therefore, we can determine that A2 Gary is CRIMINAL and A4 Pam is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"There's an equal number of criminals in rows 1 and 2" — Vera (B5)
"There are more criminals in row 1 than row 4" — Barnie (B1)
"Both criminals above Uma are connected" — Ruth (B4)
D4 · Tyler → INNOCENT
Because: In column D, Ellie at D1 and John at D2 are already known innocents, and neither of them is a neighbor of Tyler at D4. Hank’s clue says that exactly 1 innocent in column D is neighboring Tyler, and the only people in column D who neighbor Tyler are Ollie at D3 and Zoe at D5, so exactly one of Ollie and Zoe must be innocent. That means column D has Ellie, John, and exactly one of (Ollie, Zoe) as innocents, so column D has exactly 3 innocents unless Tyler is also innocent. Pam’s clue says column C is the only column with exactly 3 innocents, so column D cannot have exactly 3 innocents, which forces Tyler to be innocent. Therefore, we can determine that D4 · Tyler is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"Exactly 1 innocent in column D is neighboring Tyler" — Hank (B2)
"Column C is the only column with exactly 3 innocents" — Pam (A4)
A5 · Uma → CRIMINAL
Because: Uma is in A5, so the people above her in column A are Adam (A1), Gary (A2), Kumar (A3), and Pam (A4). Ruth’s clue says “Both criminals above Uma,” which means there are exactly two criminals among those four; since Gary is already a criminal and Pam is already innocent, that forces exactly one of Adam or Kumar to be a criminal and the other to be innocent. That means column A already has exactly two innocents for sure (Pam, plus the one innocent among Adam and Kumar), so if Uma were also innocent then column A would end up with exactly 3 innocents. Pam’s clue says column C is the only column with exactly 3 innocents, so column A cannot have exactly 3 innocents, and Uma cannot be innocent. Therefore, we can determine that A5 Uma is CRIMINAL.
Clue:
"Both criminals above Uma are connected" — Ruth (B4)
"Column C is the only column with exactly 3 innocents" — Pam (A4)
C4 · Susan → INNOCENT
Because: Rows 1 and 2 must have the same number of criminals, and row 2 already has exactly two criminals (Gary at A2 and Hank at B2), so row 1 must also have exactly two criminals; since Barnie at B1 is already a criminal and Ellie at D1 is innocent, that forces exactly one of Adam at A1 or Donna at C1 to be a criminal. Hank’s clue says the number of innocents neighboring Hank at B2 is odd; with only Igor at C2 confirmed innocent among Hank’s neighbors so far, the four unknown neighbors Adam (A1), Donna (C1), Kumar (A3), and Nicole (C3) must contain an even number of innocents, so they contain an even number of criminals. Because Adam and Donna contain exactly one criminal, Kumar and Nicole must also contain exactly one criminal. Max’s clue says the number of criminals neighboring Max at B3 is odd, and since Gary and Hank already contribute two criminals, the three unknown neighbors Kumar (A3), Nicole (C3), and Susan (C4) must contribute an odd number of criminals; with Kumar and Nicole already contributing exactly one criminal total, Susan cannot be a criminal or the total would become even. Therefore, we can determine that C4 Susan is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"There's an equal number of criminals in rows 1 and 2" — Vera (B5)
"There's an odd number of innocents neighboring Hank" — Gary (A2)
"There's an odd number of criminals neighboring Max" — Tyler (D4)
C5 · Xavi → CRIMINAL
Because: Row 2 has exactly two criminals (Gary and Hank), so Vera’s clue that rows 1 and 2 have an equal number of criminals means row 1 also has exactly two criminals; since Barnie in B1 is already a criminal and Ellie in D1 is innocent, exactly one of Adam in A1 and Donna in C1 is a criminal, so if Adam is a criminal then Donna is an innocent. Gary’s clue says Hank has an odd number of innocent neighbors, and the only already-known innocent neighbor of Hank is Igor at C2, so the four unknown neighbors A1, C1, A3, and C3 must contain an even number of innocents; because A1 and C1 together contain exactly one innocent, A3 and C3 together must also contain an odd number of innocents, so if Kumar at A3 is a criminal then Nicole at C3 is an innocent. Pam’s clue says column C is the only column with exactly 3 innocents; column C already has exactly two innocents (Igor at C2 and Susan at C4), so among C1, C3, and C5 there is exactly one innocent, and also column A cannot have exactly 3 innocents, meaning Adam at A1 and Kumar at A3 cannot both be innocents, so at least one of them is a criminal and therefore at least one of C1 or C3 is an innocent. That forces the single remaining innocent spot in column C (among C1, C3, C5) to be in C1 or C3, not C5. Therefore, we can determine that C5 Xavi is CRIMINAL.
Clue:
"There's an equal number of criminals in rows 1 and 2" — Vera (B5)
"There's an odd number of innocents neighboring Hank" — Gary (A2)
"Column C is the only column with exactly 3 innocents" — Pam (A4)
D3 · Ollie → INNOCENT
Because: Hank is at B2, and his neighbors are Adam, Barnie, Donna, Gary, Igor, Kumar, Max, and Nicole. Gary’s clue says the number of innocents neighboring Hank is odd; since Igor is already an innocent neighbor, that forces the remaining four unknown neighbors (Adam, Donna, Kumar, and Nicole) to contain an even number of innocents, so they also contain an even number of criminals. Xavi’s clue says rows 1 and 3 have the same number of criminals; with Barnie and Max already criminals and Ellie already innocent, that reduces to “the number of criminals among Adam and Donna equals the number of criminals among Kumar, Nicole, and Ollie,” which makes the total number of criminals among Adam, Donna, Kumar, Nicole, and Ollie an even number. Since Adam, Donna, Kumar, and Nicole already contribute an even number of criminals, Ollie must contribute zero criminals to keep that five-person total even. Therefore, we can determine that D3 Ollie is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"There's an odd number of innocents neighboring Hank" — Gary (A2)
"There's an equal number of criminals in rows 1 and 3" — Xavi (C5)
D5 · Zoe → CRIMINAL
Because: The clue from Hank talks only about people in column D who neighbor Tyler at D4. Tyler’s column-D neighbors are D3 Ollie and D5 Zoe (D2 John and D1 Ellie are too far away to be neighbors). The clue says exactly one of those column-D neighbors is innocent, and Ollie is already known to be innocent, so Zoe cannot also be innocent. Therefore, we can determine that D5 Zoe is CRIMINAL.
Clue:
"Exactly 1 innocent in column D is neighboring Tyler" — Hank (B2)
C1 · Donna → CRIMINAL
Because: Consider Hank at B2 and the edge neighbors he has: A1, B1, C1, A2, and A3 all touch Hank and are on the outer edge of the board. Ollie’s clue says an odd number of those edge-neighbors are innocents; since B1 and A2 are already criminals, the odd/even result depends only on A1, C1, and A3. Ruth’s clue says there are exactly two criminals above Uma in column A and those two are connected; with A2 already a criminal and A4 already innocent, this forces exactly one of A1 and A3 to be innocent and the other to be criminal. That means among A1 and A3 there is exactly one innocent, so to keep the total number of innocents among A1, C1, and A3 odd, C1 cannot be innocent. Therefore, we can determine that C1 Donna is CRIMINAL.
Clue:
"Both criminals above Uma are connected" — Ruth (B4)
"An odd number of innocents on the edges neighbor Hank" — Ollie (D3)
A1 · Adam → INNOCENT
Because: Row 2 already has exactly two criminals, Gary at A2 and Hank at B2, since Igor and John are both innocent. In row 1, Barnie at B1 and Donna at C1 are criminals while Ellie at D1 is innocent, so the row currently has exactly two criminals plus Adam at A1, who is still unknown. Vera’s clue says rows 1 and 2 have an equal number of criminals, so row 1 must also have exactly two criminals, which means Adam cannot be a criminal. Therefore, we can determine that A1 Adam is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"There's an equal number of criminals in rows 1 and 2" — Vera (B5)
A3 · Kumar → CRIMINAL
Because: Uma is at A5, so “above Uma” refers to the four people in column A at A1, A2, A3, and A4. Ruth’s clue says there are exactly two criminals among those four, and those two criminals form one connected group using only up-down-left-right adjacency. We already know Gary at A2 is a criminal, and we also know Adam at A1 and Pam at A4 are innocents, so the only place the second criminal above Uma can be is A3, Kumar. With criminals at A2 and A3, they are directly adjacent, so they are connected exactly as the clue requires. Therefore, we can determine that A3 Kumar is CRIMINAL.
Clue:
"Both criminals above Uma are connected" — Ruth (B4)
C3 · Nicole → INNOCENT
Because: Hank is at B2, so his neighbors are A1 Adam, B1 Barnie, C1 Donna, A2 Gary, C2 Igor, A3 Kumar, B3 Max, and C3 Nicole. Among these, the only confirmed innocents are Adam and Igor, giving 2 innocent neighbors so far. Gary’s clue says the total number of innocents neighboring Hank is odd, so Nicole must be an innocent to make that total 3 instead of 2. Therefore, we can determine that C3 Nicole is INNOCENT.
Clue:
"There's an odd number of innocents neighboring Hank" — Gary (A2)