Clues by Sam May 26, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
A1
👨🍳
cook
B1
👨⚖️
judge
C1
👩⚕️
doctor
D1
👨🎤
singer
A2
👨⚖️
judge
B2
👨⚕️
doctor
C2
👨⚕️
doctor
D2
💂♀️
guard
A3
💂♂️
guard
B3
💂♂️
guard
C3
👮♀️
cop
D3
👨🎤
singer
A4
👨✈️
pilot
B4
👩✈️
pilot
C4
👩✈️
pilot
D4
👩🏫
teacher
A5
👩🍳
cook
B5
👨🍳
cook
C5
👩🎤
singer
D5
👮♀️
cop
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 26, 2026 — a Medium solved in 17 steps
Today's Clues by Sam puzzle is rated Medium and resolves with 14 criminals on a 20-cell, 4-column × 5-row grid. The criminals are Berat (B1), Carol (C1), Kay (D2), Luigi (A3), Martin (B3), Nancy (C3), Olsi (D3), Peter (A4), Quita (B4), Ruby (C4), Samira (D4), Vince (B5), Xia (C5) and Zoe (D5); the remaining 6 suspects are innocent.
The deduction chain, in plain English
01.C3 · Nancy → CRIMINAL, C4 · Ruby → CRIMINAL
Aaron’s clue says there are exactly 3 criminals above Xia, and exactly 1 of those criminals is a neighbor of Berat. That means the other 2 criminals above Xia must be people above Xia who are not neighbors of Berat. Those people are Nancy and Ruby, and there are no known criminals among them yet. Since Nancy and Ruby are the only people in that group, they have to fill those 2 criminal spots. So Nancy and Ruby must be criminal.
02.C1 · Carol → CRIMINAL
Ruby’s clue says there are no innocents among the people who are both in column C and neighbors of Jason. That shared group is just Carol and Nancy. Nancy is already criminal, and there are already 0 known innocents in that group, so the only remaining unknown person there cannot be innocent. So Carol must be criminal.
03.C2 · Jason → INNOCENT
Above Xia, there are exactly three criminals in total: Carol, Jason, Nancy, and Ruby are the only people in that group, and Carol, Nancy, and Ruby are already criminals. Aaron's clue also says exactly one of those criminals is a neighbor of Berat. Among the people who are both above Xia and neighbors of Berat, Carol is already that one known criminal, and the only other person there is Jason. So Jason cannot be a criminal, which makes Jason innocent.
04.B5 · Vince → CRIMINAL
Carol’s clue says Vince is one of the exactly 4 criminals in column B. That directly identifies Vince’s status from the clue itself. So Vince must be criminal.
05.C5 · Xia → CRIMINAL
Column C already has 1 known innocent, while column B has 0 known innocents, and those two columns must end up with the same number of innocents. If Xia were innocent, column C would rise to 2 innocents. But Carol's clue says column B has exactly 4 criminals including Vince, so among Berat, Gabe, Martin, and Quita, exactly one would have to be innocent, leaving column B with only 1 innocent, not 2. That clashes with the requirement that columns B and C have equal numbers of innocents, so Xia must be criminal.
06.A3 · Luigi → CRIMINAL
Xia’s clue says the two criminals above Uma must be connected. Above Uma are Aaron, Franco, Luigi, and Peter, and Aaron is already innocent. If Luigi were innocent too, then the only people left above Uma who could be the two criminals would be Franco and Peter. But those two would not satisfy the clue’s requirement that the two criminals above Uma are connected. So Luigi must be criminal.
07.A5 · Uma → INNOCENT
Jason says there are exactly 2 criminals in column A. In that column, Aaron is already innocent and Luigi is already criminal, so only one more criminal can appear among Franco, Peter, and Uma. Xia says both criminals above Uma are connected. The possible extra criminal in column A therefore has to be above Uma, which limits that last criminal to Franco or Peter, not Uma. So Uma must be innocent.
08.B1 · Berat → CRIMINAL
Carol says column B contains exactly 4 criminals, so with five people in that column there is exactly 1 innocent there. Uma’s clue makes that one innocent in column B come from the column-B neighbors of Nancy, namely Gabe, Martin, or Quita. That means Berat is not the innocent person in column B. So Berat must be criminal.
09.B4 · Quita → CRIMINAL
Between Berat and Quita, the only people are Gabe and Martin, and that group contains exactly 1 innocent. Column B also contains exactly 1 innocent in total. The only person in column B who is not part of that between-BerAT-and-Quita group, besides the already known criminals Berat and Vince, is Quita. So the one innocent allowed in the whole column is already accounted for among Gabe and Martin, which means Quita cannot be innocent. That makes Quita criminal.
10.D1 · Ed → INNOCENT
Quita says there are exactly 2 innocents in row 1. In row 1, Aaron is already known to be innocent, so row 1 still needs 1 more innocent. The only unknown person left in row 1 is Ed. So Ed must be innocent.
11.D5 · Zoe → CRIMINAL
Luigi’s clue says that exactly one row has 2 innocents. Row 1 already fits that, because Aaron and Ed are innocent while Berat and Carol are criminal, so row 1 has exactly 2 innocents. Row 5 already has one known innocent, Uma, and Zoe is the only person there whose identity is not yet known. If Zoe were innocent, then row 5 would also have exactly 2 innocents, which would conflict with Luigi’s clue. So Zoe must be criminal.
12.B2 · Gabe → INNOCENT
Above Uma, the people are Aaron, Franco, Luigi, and Peter, and exactly two of them must be criminals who are connected. Martin’s neighbors must contain an odd number of innocents, and among those neighbors there is already 1 known innocent, with only Franco, Gabe, and Peter still unknown there. If Gabe were criminal, then Franco and Peter would have to cover everything those two clues still require, but that cannot be done. So Gabe cannot be criminal. That makes Gabe innocent.
13.B3 · Martin → CRIMINAL
Carol’s clue says Vince is one of exactly 4 criminals in column B. In column B, Berat, Quita, and Vince are already known criminals, Gabe is innocent, and Martin is the only person there not yet identified. If Martin were innocent, then column B would contain only 3 criminals, which conflicts with the clue that there are exactly 4. So Martin must be criminal.
14.A4 · Peter → CRIMINAL, D4 · Samira → CRIMINAL
Martin’s clue says row 4 has more criminals than row 5. Row 5 already has 3 criminals, while row 4 currently has only 2 known criminals, Quita and Ruby. The only people left in row 4 who could raise that total are Peter and Samira, and if Peter and Samira were both innocent then row 4 would stay at 2 criminals and could not be more than row 5. So Peter and Samira must be criminal.
15.A2 · Franco → INNOCENT
Above Uma, the people are Aaron, Franco, Luigi, and Peter. Xia's clue says that both criminals above Uma are connected, so there must be exactly two criminals in that group, and those two must be orthogonally connected. Luigi and Peter are already the two known criminals there, and Aaron is already innocent. If Franco were criminal, there would be more than two criminals above Uma, which conflicts with the clue. So Franco must be innocent.
16.D2 · Kay → CRIMINAL
Vince’s clue says every row has at least one criminal. In row 2, Franco, Gabe, and Jason are already known to be innocent, so that row already has 3 innocents. Kay is the only person left in row 2 whose identity was not fixed yet, and row 2 cannot be all innocents. So Kay must be criminal.
17.D3 · Olsi → CRIMINAL
Kay’s clue says there are exactly 6 innocents in total. The board already shows 6 known innocents: Aaron, Ed, Franco, Gabe, Jason, and Uma. If Olsi were also innocent, that would make 7 innocents, which conflicts with Kay’s clue. So Olsi at D3 must be criminal.