Clues by Sam May 23, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
A1
👮♀️
cop
B1
👨🏫
teacher
C1
👨🔧
mech
D1
👨🏫
teacher
A2
👮♀️
cop
B2
👨💼
clerk
C2
👨🌾
farmer
D2
👩💻
coder
A3
👩🔧
mech
B3
👩💻
coder
C3
👨🔧
mech
D3
👷♂️
builder
A4
👩⚖️
judge
B4
👩💼
clerk
C4
👷♀️
builder
D4
👷♀️
builder
A5
👨⚖️
judge
B5
👩🎨
painter
C5
👩⚖️
judge
D5
👨💻
coder
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 — 14 criminals.
Clues by Sam answer for May 23, 2026 — a Tricky solved in 15 steps
Today's Clues by Sam puzzle is rated Tricky and resolves with 14 criminals on a 20-cell, 4-column × 5-row grid. The criminals are David (C1), Eli (D1), Flora (A2), Gary (B2), Megan (B3), Noah (C3), Olsi (D3), Paula (A4), Ruby (C4), Sandra (D4), Tom (A5), Uma (B5), Vilma (C5) and Zed (D5); the remaining 6 suspects are innocent.
The deduction chain, in plain English
01.A2 · Flora → CRIMINAL
Quita says Bunty has exactly 2 criminal neighbors, and exactly 1 of those criminals is in column B. Chris and Gary are Bunty's neighboring people in column B, so the other criminal neighbor must be among Bunty's neighbors who are not in column B. The only such neighbor is Flora, and that group still needs 1 criminal. So Flora must be criminal.
02.C3 · Noah → CRIMINAL
Flora's clue says Noah is one of Megan's 5 criminal neighbors. That directly places Noah among Megan's criminal neighbors, so Noah must be criminal. So Noah must be criminal.
03.B5 · Uma → CRIMINAL, B3 · Megan → CRIMINAL
Column B must have at least 3 criminals, and Quita is already known innocent there. If Megan and Uma were both innocent, then column B would be left with only Chris and Gary as possible criminals in that column. That would give column B at most 2 criminals, which clashes with the requirement that every column has at least 3 criminals. So Megan and Uma must be criminal.
04.A5 · Tom → CRIMINAL
Megan’s clue fixes the people above Tom as containing exactly 2 innocents, and right now none of those four people is known innocent, so that requirement has to be met by Bunty, Lucy, and Paula. At the same time, Noah’s clue says every column must have at least 3 criminals. If Tom were innocent, the remaining unknown people named here could not satisfy both of those clues together. So Tom must be criminal.
05.A1 · Bunty → INNOCENT, C4 · Ruby → CRIMINAL
Above Tom there must be exactly 2 innocents, and at the moment the only candidates there are Bunty, Lucy, and Paula. Megan’s neighbors must contain exactly 5 criminals, with Flora and Noah already counted as criminals and Quita already innocent; among the remaining people touched by these clues are Gary, Laurent, Lucy, Paula, and Ruby. If Bunty were criminal and Ruby were innocent, then Gary, Laurent, Lucy, and Paula would have to make all of those clue requirements true at the same time, but they cannot. So Bunty and Ruby cannot have those opposite identities. That makes Bunty innocent and Ruby criminal.
06.D4 · Sandra → CRIMINAL
David has exactly 2 criminal neighbors, and exactly 1 of those is to the left of Julia. Among David's neighbors, the people to the left of Julia are Gary and Laurent, so exactly 1 of Gary and Laurent is criminal. Noah has exactly 5 criminal neighbors, and exactly 1 of those is above Sandra, so exactly 4 of Noah's neighbors who are not above Sandra are criminal. In that not-above-Sandra group, Megan and Ruby are already criminal, Quita is innocent, and Gary and Laurent contribute exactly 1 criminal between them. That leaves Sandra as the remaining person who must provide the last criminal needed in that group. So Sandra must be criminal.
07.D5 · Zed → CRIMINAL
Bunty's clue makes D2 Julia and D3 Olsi the only criminal neighbor of Noah who is above Sandra, so among the people below Eli there are exactly three criminals: D2 Julia, D3 Olsi, D4 Sandra, and D5 Zed, with D2 Julia, D3 Olsi, and D4 Sandra accounting for three of those spots. The only person below Eli who is not in that smaller group is D5 Zed. So D5 Zed must be criminal.
08.A3 · Lucy → INNOCENT
Bunty’s clue says his neighbors contain exactly 2 criminals, and exactly 1 of those criminals is in column B. Since Flora is already a criminal neighbor of Bunty and she is not in column B, that means exactly 1 of Chris and Gary is a criminal. Flora’s clue says her neighbors contain an odd number of innocents. Among Flora’s neighbors, Bunty is already 1 known innocent, and the remaining unknown people there are Chris, Gary, and Lucy. If Lucy were a criminal, then Chris and Gary would have to fit both clues at once, but that cannot be done. So Lucy must be innocent.
09.A4 · Paula → CRIMINAL
Megan's clue says the people above Tom contain exactly 2 innocents. Above Tom, Bunty and Lucy are already known innocents, so those 2 innocent places are fully used. The only person above Tom whose identity was still unknown is Paula, so she cannot be innocent. So Paula must be criminal.
10.D3 · Olsi → CRIMINAL, D2 · Julia → INNOCENT
Noah’s neighbors must contain exactly 5 criminals, and exactly 1 of those criminals is above Sandra. The only neighbors of Noah who are above Sandra are Julia and Olsi, so the one criminal above Sandra has to be one of those two. Now test the opposite assignment: Olsi innocent and Julia criminal. Row 2 must contain exactly 2 innocents, but row 2 currently has no known innocents, so Gary and Laurent would both have to be innocent along with Julia being criminal. That cannot satisfy these clues at the same time, so that opposite assignment is impossible. So Olsi must be criminal, and Julia must be innocent.
11.C5 · Vilma → CRIMINAL
Julia’s clue says her neighbors contain an odd number of innocents. Right now those neighbors have no known innocents, so the innocents among C1 David, D1 Eli, and C2 Laurent must be an odd number. Tom’s clue says columns C and D have the same number of innocents. Column D already has 1 known innocent, while column C has none. If C5 Vilma were innocent, then matching column D would still depend on C1 David, D1 Eli, and C2 Laurent in a way that cannot also satisfy Julia’s odd-neighbor requirement. So Vilma at C5 must be criminal.
12.B2 · Gary → CRIMINAL, C2 · Laurent → INNOCENT
David’s neighbors must contain exactly 2 criminals, and exactly 1 of those criminals is to the left of Julia. The only neighbors of David who are to the left of Julia are Gary and Laurent, so exactly one of Gary and Laurent is a criminal. At the same time, columns C and D must have the same number of innocents. Column D already has 1 known innocent, while column C has 0 known innocents, so column C needs an innocent among its unknown people. If Gary were innocent and Laurent were criminal, the remaining people involved here, Chris, David, and Eli, could not satisfy all of those requirements together. So that opposite pairing is impossible. That makes Gary criminal and Laurent innocent.
13.B1 · Chris → INNOCENT
Quita says Bunty has exactly 2 criminal neighbors, and exactly 1 of those criminals is in column B. Among Bunty's neighbors who are in column B, Gary is already a known criminal. That already fills the single criminal allowed there, so the only other such person, Chris, cannot be a criminal. So Chris must be innocent.
14.D1 · Eli → CRIMINAL
Uma's clue says David has exactly 2 criminal neighbors, and exactly 1 of those criminal neighbors is to the left of Julia. Among David's neighbors, the people to the left of Julia are Gary and Laurent, and only Gary is criminal, so that one required criminal on Julia's left is already accounted for. That means the other criminal neighbor of David must be among David's neighbors who are not to the left of Julia: Chris, Eli, and Julia. Chris and Julia are innocent, so the only person who can fill that remaining criminal spot is Eli. So Eli must be criminal.
15.C1 · David → CRIMINAL
Tom’s clue says columns C and D must have the same number of innocents. Column D already has 1 innocent, and column C already has 1 known innocent, Laurent. If David were innocent too, then column C would have 2 innocents while column D would still have 1, which breaks Tom’s clue. So David cannot be innocent. That makes David criminal.