Clues by Sam May 31, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
A1
👮♂️
cop
B1
👨🎨
painter
C1
👨🎨
painter
D1
👨🍳
cook
A2
👮♂️
cop
B2
👩🏫
teacher
C2
👨🏫
teacher
D2
👩🍳
cook
A3
👨🍳
cook
B3
👨🏫
teacher
C3
👨🎨
painter
D3
👩🌾
farmer
A4
👩⚖️
judge
B4
👩🎤
singer
C4
👩⚖️
judge
D4
👩💻
coder
A5
👩⚖️
judge
B5
👨🌾
farmer
C5
👩🎤
singer
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 — 15 criminals.
Clues by Sam answer for May 31, 2026 — a Hard solved in 16 steps
Today's Clues by Sam puzzle is rated Hard and resolves with 15 criminals on a 20-cell, 4-column × 5-row grid. The criminals are Chola (B1), Denis (C1), Eric (D1), Floyd (A2), Hope (B2), Ike (C2), Janet (D2), Keith (A3), Luigi (B3), Martin (C3), Nancy (D3), Olive (A4), Stella (D4), Wanda (C5) and Xia (D5); the remaining 5 suspects are innocent.
The deduction chain, in plain English
01.B5 · Vince → INNOCENT, B2 · Hope → CRIMINAL, B3 · Luigi → CRIMINAL
Below Chola are Hope, Luigi, Petra, and Vince. Petra’s clue says both criminals in that group are connected, so there must be exactly two criminals there forming one orthogonally connected pair. If Vince were criminal while Hope and Luigi were innocent, then among the people below Chola the only criminal would be Vince, which conflicts with the clue that says both criminals below Chola are connected. So that opposite assignment cannot be right. This leaves Vince as innocent, and Hope and Luigi as the two connected criminals.
02.C3 · Martin → CRIMINAL, C2 · Ike → CRIMINAL
Below Denis there are exactly 3 criminals. Of those, exactly 1 is a neighbor of Xia, and the only people below Denis who are Xia's neighbors are Quita and Wanda. That means the other 2 criminals below Denis must be the people below Denis who are not Xia's neighbors. Those two people are Ike and Martin, and there are no known criminals there yet, so Ike and Martin must fill both criminal spots. So Martin and Ike must be criminal.
03.C1 · Denis → CRIMINAL
Below Denis there must be exactly 3 criminals, and exactly 1 of those criminals is a neighbor of Xia. Ike and Martin are already 2 criminals below Denis, and the only below-Denis people who are also Xia's neighbors are Quita and Wanda. Column A must contain exactly 2 innocents, and column A must also have more innocents than column C. If Denis were innocent, then column C would already contain an innocent at Denis while still having Ike and Martin as criminals, and that makes the remaining people tied to these clues unable to satisfy all of those requirements at the same time. So Denis must be criminal.
04.A3 · Keith → CRIMINAL
Vince’s clue says column A has exactly 2 innocents, so the 5 people in column A must include exactly 3 criminals. Denis’s clue says all criminals in column A are connected, so those 3 criminals have to make one continuous block. The only possible 3-person blocks in column A are Bruce, Floyd, and Keith; Floyd, Keith, and Olive; or Keith, Olive, and Uma. Keith is in every one of those possible criminal blocks, so Keith must be criminal.
05.D4 · Stella → CRIMINAL
Below Denis there is exactly 1 innocent, and within Xia's neighbors that exact-count group is Quita and Wanda. So among Quita and Wanda, exactly 1 is innocent. Xia's neighbors are Quita, Stella, and Wanda, and Keith's clue says this neighbor set contains an odd number of innocents. Quita and Wanda already contribute 1 innocent, which is odd. Stella is the only other neighbor not included in that exact-count pair, so she cannot also be innocent. So Stella must be criminal.
06.A2 · Floyd → CRIMINAL
Hope’s neighbors must contain exactly 7 criminals, and among those neighbors 5 are already known criminals. The only unknown neighbors there are Bruce, Chola, and Floyd, so exactly 2 of those 3 must be criminals. Now test Floyd as innocent. Then Bruce and Chola would both have to be criminals to bring Hope’s neighbor count up to 7. But with Bruce, Floyd, Keith, Olive, and Uma in column A, Denis’s clue says the criminals in column A must form one connected block, and making Floyd innocent breaks that requirement around Keith. So Floyd cannot be innocent. That makes Floyd criminal.
07.A5 · Uma → INNOCENT
In column A, Floyd and Keith are already criminals, and Vince's clue says the column has exactly two innocents, so among Bruce, Olive, and Uma there is exactly one more criminal. Denis's clue says all criminals in column A must form one connected block. With Floyd and Keith fixed in that block, the only possible blocks are Bruce-Floyd-Keith or Floyd-Keith-Olive, and neither of those includes Uma. So Uma must be innocent.
08.D1 · Eric → CRIMINAL
Row 1 must contain an odd number of criminals, and it already has 1 known criminal, Denis. So the remaining people in row 1 must add an even number of criminals. Hope has exactly 7 criminal neighbors. Among Hope's row 1 neighbors, A1 Bruce, B1 Chola, and C1 Denis, Denis is already criminal, and Bruce and Chola must supply exactly 1 more criminal between them. So within row 1, Bruce and Chola contribute an odd number of criminals, but the whole unfinished part of row 1 has to contribute an even number. That means D1 Eric must be criminal.
09.D2 · Janet → CRIMINAL
Uma’s clue says row 1 has more innocents than row 2. Right now both rows have 0 known innocents, so if Janet were innocent then row 2 would already have 1 innocent. That would mean row 1 would need even more innocents than that, using Bruce and Chola, while Stella’s clue also fixes Hope’s neighborhood as the only neighborhood with exactly 7 criminals. Hope already has 6 known criminal neighbors, so Bruce and Chola are tightly constrained by that same clue, and making Janet innocent makes the remaining people touched by these clues unable to satisfy both requirements at once. So Janet must be criminal.
10.C4 · Quita → INNOCENT
Row 4 contains Olive, Petra, Quita, and Stella, and Stella is the only known criminal there. Floyd’s clue says exactly one criminal in row 4 has an innocent directly below them, while Luigi’s clue says the edge must contain an odd number of innocents, and there are currently 2 known edge innocents. If Quita were criminal, then the remaining people involved here, namely Bruce, Chola, Nancy, Olive, Wanda, and Xia, would have to make Stella’s neighbor clue, Floyd’s row 4 clue, and Luigi’s edge-count clue all true at the same time. That cannot be done. So Quita must be innocent.
11.C5 · Wanda → CRIMINAL
Below Denis there are exactly 3 criminals in total. Among the people below Denis who are also neighbors of Xia, the only ones are Quita and Wanda, and exactly 1 of those must be a criminal. Quita is innocent, so that one criminal in that shared group has to be Wanda. So Wanda must be criminal.
12.D5 · Xia → CRIMINAL
Column A has exactly 2 innocents, and at the moment Uma is the only known innocent there, so A1 Bruce and A4 Olive have to supply exactly one more innocent in column A. The edge cells must contain an odd number of innocents, and they currently have 2 known innocents: Uma and Vince. If Xia were innocent, then the edge cells would need Bruce, Chola, Nancy, and Olive to make the edge total stay odd while column A still keeps exactly 2 innocents. But those same remaining people cannot satisfy all of those requirements together with Hope being the only person whose neighbors contain exactly 7 criminals. So Xia must be criminal.
13.A4 · Olive → CRIMINAL
Floyd’s clue says there is exactly one criminal in row 4 who has an innocent directly below them. In row 4, Stella is already known to be a criminal, while Petra and Quita are already innocent, so Olive is the only person there whose identity is not yet fixed. If Olive were innocent, that would conflict with the requirement that row 4 contain exactly one criminal fitting Floyd’s clue. So Olive must be criminal.
14.A1 · Bruce → INNOCENT
Vince’s clue says there are exactly 2 innocents in column A. In that column, Uma is already known to be innocent, so column A currently has 1 known innocent. The only person in column A whose identity is still unknown is Bruce, so he has to be the second innocent. So Bruce must be innocent.
15.B1 · Chola → CRIMINAL
Hope’s neighbors must contain exactly 7 criminals, and right now those neighbors already include 6 known criminals, 1 known innocent, and only one unknown person: Chola. That means the seventh criminal in Hope’s neighborhood has to be Chola. If Chola were innocent instead, Hope would have only 6 criminal neighbors, which contradicts Stella’s statement that Hope is the only one with exactly 7 criminal neighbors. So Chola must be criminal.
16.D3 · Nancy → CRIMINAL
Hope’s neighbors are the only neighbor set allowed to have exactly 7 criminals. Ike’s neighbors already contain 7 known criminals, and the only person there whose identity is not yet fixed is Nancy. If Nancy were innocent, Ike’s neighbors would remain at exactly 7 criminals, which would give Ike the same count that only Hope is allowed to have. So Nancy must be criminal.