Clues by Sam May 14, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
A1
👮♀️
cop
B1
👩🏫
teacher
C1
👩🏫
teacher
D1
💂♀️
guard
A2
👩🌾
farmer
B2
💂♂️
guard
C2
🕵️♂️
sleuth
D2
🕵️♂️
sleuth
A3
👩✈️
pilot
B3
👨🔧
mech
C3
🕵️♂️
sleuth
D3
👩🔧
mech
A4
👩🌾
farmer
B4
👩🎨
painter
C4
👨🎨
painter
D4
👨🎨
painter
A5
👨✈️
pilot
B5
👮♂️
cop
C5
👩✈️
pilot
D5
👨🔧
mech
Final Board State
This puzzle is fully solved.
All characters have been identified as innocent or criminal based on today's clues.
See how each clue leads to the final result
Skip the reasoning — 9 criminals.
Clues by Sam answer for May 14, 2026 — a Tricky solved in 15 steps
Today's Clues by Sam puzzle is rated Tricky and resolves with 9 criminals on a 20-cell, 4-column × 5-row grid. The criminals are Amy (A1), Barb (B1), Carol (C1), Gus (B2), Joe (C2), Keith (D2), Lucy (A3), Olive (D3) and Xia (C5); the remaining 11 suspects are innocent.
The deduction chain, in plain English
01.B2 · Gus → CRIMINAL, C2 · Joe → CRIMINAL
Vince’s clue says there are no innocents among the people who are both to the left of Keith and neighbors of Nick. That shared group is just Gus and Joe, and there are already 0 known innocents in it. So Gus and Joe cannot be innocent. Therefore Gus and Joe must be criminal.
02.D5 · Zach → INNOCENT
Joe’s clue says that Zach is one of the exactly 2 innocents to the right of Vince. That directly identifies Zach as innocent. So Zach must be innocent.
03.D3 · Olive → CRIMINAL
Below Debra are Keith, Olive, Umar, and Zach, and Gus's clue says the two criminals in that group must be connected. Zach is already innocent. If Olive were also innocent, then the only possible criminals below Debra would be Keith and Umar, but those two would not be connected because Olive sits between them. So Olive at D3 must be criminal.
04.D1 · Debra → INNOCENT
Gus’s clue says the criminals below Debra are exactly two people and those two must be connected. The people below Debra are Keith, Olive, Umar, and Zach, and Zach is already innocent while Olive is already a criminal. At the same time, Zach’s clue fixes column C as the only column with exactly 2 innocents, with columns A, B, and D as the other columns that must not have exactly 2 innocents. If Debra were a criminal, then Keith, Umar, and the people in column C together with the other compared columns would have to meet both of those clue requirements at once, and they cannot. So Debra must be innocent.
05.C1 · Carol → CRIMINAL
Column C has to be the only column with exactly 2 innocents, and Umar’s neighbors have to contain an odd number of innocents. Umar’s neighbors already include 1 known innocent, with only Nick, Tom, and Xia left unknown there. If Carol were innocent, the remaining people named in these clues would have to make both of those facts true at the same time, but they cannot. That rules out Carol being innocent. So Carol must be criminal.
06.A4 · Penny → INNOCENT
Carol’s clue says the people above Penny contain exactly one innocent, and right now those people are Amy, Emily, and Lucy, with no innocent yet identified among them. Zach’s clue says column C has exactly two innocents and no other column can end with exactly two innocents. If Penny were criminal, then Amy, Emily, and Lucy would still have to supply that one innocent above Penny, while the remaining unknown people would also have to make column C end at exactly two innocents without letting the other columns match that total. Those same people cannot satisfy all of that at once. So Penny must be innocent.
07.C4 · Tom → INNOCENT
To Vince’s right, Zach already accounts for one of the two innocents, so among Will and Xia there is exactly one innocent. In Quita’s neighbors that are not in row 3, Penny and Vince are already innocent, and the remaining people there are Tom, Will, and Xia. Since that non-row-3 group has exactly four innocents, Will and Xia contribute only one of them, so the extra innocent has to come from the only remaining person outside that smaller pair: Tom. So Tom must be innocent.
08.B1 · Barb → CRIMINAL
Carol’s clue says that among the people above Penny, exactly one is innocent, and those people are Amy, Emily, and Lucy. Tom’s clue says an odd number of the edge neighbors of Gus are innocent, and that group is Amy, Barb, Emily, and Lucy, since Carol there is already criminal. If Barb were innocent, then Amy, Emily, and Lucy would have to satisfy both clues at the same time, but they cannot. So Barb cannot be innocent. That makes Barb criminal.
09.A1 · Amy → CRIMINAL
Above Penny, the only people are Amy, Emily, and Lucy, and that group contains exactly one innocent. In this step, that one innocent has to come from Emily and Lucy, so Amy is not the innocent in that group. So Amy must be criminal.
10.D4 · Umar → INNOCENT
Joe’s clue says that to the right of Vince there are exactly 2 innocents, and Zach is one of them. Since the people to the right of Vince are Will, Xia, and Zach, that means Will and Xia cannot both be innocent. Amy’s clue says an odd number of the edge neighbors of Tom are innocent. Those people are Olive, Umar, Will, Xia, and Zach. In that group, Olive is criminal and Zach is innocent, so if Umar were criminal, the only way to make the number of innocents odd would be for both Will and Xia to be innocent. But that clashes with Joe’s clue, which does not allow both Will and Xia to be innocent. So Umar must be innocent.
11.D2 · Keith → CRIMINAL
Gus’s clue says that the two criminals below Debra are connected. Below Debra are Keith, Olive, Umar, and Zach, and among them Olive is already a criminal while Umar and Zach are already innocent. If Keith were innocent too, then below Debra there would not be both criminals the clue requires. So Keith at D2 must be criminal.
12.B3 · Mark → INNOCENT
Row 1 already has 3 criminals, while row 3 currently has 1, so Barb's clue means row 3 cannot reach 3 criminals. If Mark were a criminal, then row 3 would already need Lucy and Nick not to both be criminals. Keith's clue says exactly 1 innocent in row 3 is neighboring Mark, and the only people in both row 3 and Mark's neighbors are Lucy and Nick. So among Lucy and Nick, exactly one must be innocent. Those two requirements cannot be met with Mark as a criminal, so Mark cannot be a criminal. So Mark must be innocent.
13.C3 · Nick → INNOCENT, B4 · Quita → INNOCENT, B5 · Will → INNOCENT, C5 · Xia → CRIMINAL
Zach’s clue fixes column C at exactly 2 innocents, and Mark’s clue says only one row can have exactly 4 innocents. If Nick were criminal, Quita were criminal, Will were criminal, and Xia were innocent, then Emily and Lucy would be the remaining people who would have to make those clues all fit at the same time, but they cannot. So that opposite assignment is impossible. Therefore Nick and Quita and Will cannot be criminals, and Xia cannot be innocent. So Nick, Quita, and Will must be innocent, and Xia must be criminal.
14.A3 · Lucy → CRIMINAL
Keith’s clue is about the people who are both in row 3 and neighboring Mark. That shared group is just Lucy and Nick, and Nick is already known to be innocent. Since the clue says there is exactly 1 innocent in that shared group, the only remaining person there cannot also be innocent. So Lucy must be criminal.
15.A2 · Emily → INNOCENT
Zach’s clue says column C is the only column with exactly 2 innocents. Column A already has 2 known innocents, and Emily is the only person in that column not yet identified. If Emily were criminal, then column A would remain on exactly 2 innocents, which the clue forbids because only column C can have exactly 2. So Emily must be innocent.