Clues by Sam May 17, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
A1
👩🎤
singer
B1
👩🎤
singer
C1
😬
monkey
D1
💂♀️
guard
A2
👨🎤
singer
B2
😬
monkey
C2
😬
monkey
D2
👷♂️
builder
A3
👩🎨
painter
B3
👨🎨
painter
C3
👨🎨
painter
D3
😬
monkey
A4
👩🏫
teacher
B4
👩💼
clerk
C4
👩💼
clerk
D4
😬
monkey
A5
👨🏫
teacher
B5
👩🏫
teacher
C5
👨💼
clerk
D5
😬
monkey
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 — 16 criminals.
Clues by Sam answer for May 17, 2026 — a Hard solved in 17 steps
Today's Clues by Sam puzzle is rated Hard and resolves with 16 criminals on a 20-cell, 4-column × 5-row grid. The criminals are Bunty (A1), Carol (B1), Daniel (C1), Floyd (A2), Ivan (B2), Joyce (C2), Kyle (D2), Lucy (A3), Martin (B3), Ollie (C3), Peter (D3), Quita (A4), Sarah (C4), Umar (A5), Vicky (B5) and Wally (C5); the remaining 4 suspects are innocent.
The deduction chain, in plain English
01.A4 · Quita → CRIMINAL, A2 · Floyd → CRIMINAL
Ellie’s clue says Lucy has exactly 4 criminal neighbors, and exactly 2 of those criminal neighbors are below Bunty. Among Lucy’s neighbors, the only people who are below Bunty are Floyd and Quita. Since those 2 below-Bunty spots still have to supply exactly 2 criminal neighbors, both of them have to be criminals. So Quita and Floyd must be criminal.
02.B5 · Vicky → CRIMINAL
Sarah’s neighboring clerks are Ruby and Wally, and exactly 1 of them is criminal. The people who are directly right of teachers are Ruby, Vicky, and Wally, and exactly 2 of those are criminal. Since Ruby and Wally account for only 1 criminal between them, the remaining person in that larger group has to provide the second criminal. So Vicky must be criminal.
03.B1 · Carol → CRIMINAL
Ellie’s clue fixes Lucy’s neighbors at exactly 4 criminals, and exactly 2 of those criminals are below Bunty. Those two are already Floyd and Quita, so the other 2 criminals in Lucy’s neighbor group must come from the column B neighbors Ivan, Martin, and Ruby. Vicky’s clue says column B is the only column with exactly 4 criminals. If Carol were innocent, then making column B have exactly 4 criminals while keeping that clue true and also satisfying Ellie’s clue leads to an impossibility with the remaining people involved. So Carol must be criminal.
04.C4 · Sarah → CRIMINAL
Carol’s clue says there are exactly 2 criminal clerks who have a criminal directly above them. The clerks are Ruby, Sarah, and Wally, and none of them is already known to be criminal. If Sarah were innocent, then Ruby and Wally, together with the related people Martin and Ollie above the clerks, would have to make Carol’s clue come out right. But those same people cannot satisfy that requirement if Sarah is innocent. So Sarah must be criminal.
05.C3 · Ollie → CRIMINAL
Floyd’s clue says Sarah has exactly 5 criminal neighbors, and only 1 of those criminal neighbors is a clerk. Among Sarah’s neighboring clerks, the only possibilities are Ruby and Wally, so the non-clerk neighbors must include exactly 2 innocents. Those 2 innocents are confined to Martin, Peter, Thor, and Zara, not Ollie. So Ollie must be criminal.
06.B3 · Martin → CRIMINAL
Lucy has exactly 4 criminal neighbors, so among her 5 neighbors there is exactly 1 innocent. The two already known criminals there are Floyd and Quita, so that one innocent must be among Ivan, Martin, and Ruby. But the innocent in that group is limited to Ivan or Ruby, not Martin. That means Martin cannot be the one innocent neighbor of Lucy, so Martin at B3 must be criminal.
07.D5 · Zara → INNOCENT, D2 · Kyle → CRIMINAL
Floyd’s clue says Sarah’s neighbors contain exactly 5 criminals, and exactly 1 of those criminal neighbors is a clerk, so any statuses for the remaining people around Sarah have to fit that exact split. Martin’s clue also fixes that exactly 3 edge people have an innocent directly above them. If Zara were criminal and Kyle were innocent, then the other people involved here, Bunty, Daniel, Lucy, Peter, Ruby, Thor, Umar, and Wally, would have to satisfy both of those exact requirements at the same time, and they cannot. So that tested pair of identities is impossible. That makes Zara innocent and Kyle criminal.
08.C2 · Joyce → CRIMINAL
Kyle’s clue says Ollie has exactly 2 innocent neighbors. Among Ollie’s neighbors, the only candidates for those 2 innocents are Ivan, Joyce, Peter, Ruby, and Thor. But the 2 innocent neighbors have to come from Ivan, Peter, Ruby, and Thor, so Joyce is not one of them. That makes Joyce criminal.
09.A3 · Lucy → CRIMINAL
Lucy’s clue says her neighbors contain exactly 4 criminals, and exactly 2 of those criminals are below Bunty. Those 2 are already Floyd and Quita, so no other criminal among Lucy’s neighbors can be below Bunty. Martin’s clue says his neighbors contain an odd number of innocents. Right now there are no known innocents among Martin’s neighbors, so the unknown neighbors Ivan, Lucy, and Ruby have to supply that odd count. If Lucy were innocent, then Ivan and Ruby would have to fit both clues at once along with Lucy’s clue about where the 4 criminals can be, and that cannot be done. So Lucy cannot be innocent. So Lucy must be criminal.
10.C1 · Daniel → CRIMINAL
Lucy’s clue says there are no innocents between Bunty and Ellie. Between Bunty and Ellie, there are already 0 known innocents, and the only person there whose status is still unknown is Daniel. Since that group must contain exactly 0 innocents, Daniel cannot be innocent. So Daniel must be criminal.
11.C5 · Wally → CRIMINAL
Vicky’s clue says column B is the only column with exactly 4 criminals. Column C already has 4 known criminals, and Wally is the only person in that column not yet identified. If Wally were innocent, then column C would remain on exactly 4 criminals, which the clue does not allow for any column except B. So Wally must be criminal.
12.B4 · Ruby → INNOCENT
Floyd's clue says Sarah has exactly 5 criminal neighbors, and exactly 1 of those criminal neighbors is a clerk. Among Sarah's neighboring clerks, the only possibilities are Ruby and Wally. Wally is already a known criminal, so that one clerk-criminal neighbor is already accounted for. That means Ruby cannot also be a criminal, so Ruby must be innocent.
13.B2 · Ivan → CRIMINAL
Ellie’s clue says Lucy has exactly 4 criminal neighbors, and exactly 2 of those criminals are below Bunty. Those 2 are already Floyd and Quita, so the other 2 criminal neighbors of Lucy must be people who are not below Bunty. Among Lucy’s neighbors who are not below Bunty, Martin is already a criminal, Ruby is innocent, and Ivan is the only unknown. Since that group still needs 1 more criminal to make the required total of 2, Ivan must be criminal.
14.A1 · Bunty → CRIMINAL
Floyd’s clue fixes Sarah’s neighboring group at exactly 5 criminals, and among those criminals exactly 1 is a clerk. In Sarah’s neighbors, four criminals are already known, and the only clerk there who is criminal is Wally, so Peter and Thor are the remaining unknown people tied to that requirement. Martin’s clue also fixes the edge count: exactly 3 edge people have an innocent directly above them. The edge people still not identified in these clue-related groups are Bunty, Peter, Thor, and Umar. If Bunty were innocent, then Bunty together with Peter, Thor, and Umar would have to fit both clue counts at the same time, and that cannot be done. So Bunty must be criminal.
15.A5 · Umar → CRIMINAL
Vicky’s clue says column B is the only column with exactly 4 criminals. Column A already has 4 known criminals, and Umar is the only person in that column not yet identified. If Umar were innocent, then column A would also have exactly 4 criminals, which would contradict the clue that only column B has that total. So Umar must be criminal.
16.D3 · Peter → CRIMINAL
Bunty’s clue says Thor’s neighbors contain exactly one innocent. Among Thor’s neighbors, there is already one known innocent there. The only neighbor of Thor whose identity is still unknown is Peter, so Peter cannot also be innocent. So Peter must be criminal.
17.D4 · Thor → INNOCENT
Floyd's clue says Sarah has exactly 5 criminal neighbors, and exactly 1 of those criminal neighbors is a clerk. Among Sarah's neighboring clerks, Ruby is innocent and Wally is criminal, so that one criminal clerk is already accounted for by Wally. That leaves the non-clerk neighbors B3 Martin, C3 Ollie, D3 Peter, D4 Thor, B5 Vicky, and D5 Zara to contain the other 4 criminal neighbors. But Martin, Ollie, Peter, and Vicky are already criminal, while Zara is innocent. So D4 Thor cannot also be criminal, because that would make 5 criminal non-clerks next to Sarah instead of 4. So Thor must be innocent.