Clues by Sam Jun 06, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
A1
🕵️♂️
sleuth
B1
👮♂️
cop
C1
👩💻
coder
D1
👨🌾
farmer
A2
👨🏫
teacher
B2
🕵️♂️
sleuth
C2
👨💻
coder
D2
👩🌾
farmer
A3
👨💼
clerk
B3
👨💼
clerk
C3
💂♀️
guard
D3
😬
spy
A4
👮♀️
cop
B4
🕵️♀️
sleuth
C4
👩🏫
teacher
D4
👩🌾
farmer
A5
👨💼
clerk
B5
👩🎨
painter
C5
👩🎨
painter
D5
😬
crocodile
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 Jun 06, 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 Chuck (B1), Donna (C1), Eli (D1), Frank (A2), Hal (C2), Karen (D2), Martin (A3), Noah (B3), Olivia (C3), Petra (D3), Quita (A4), Ruby (B4), Tina (D4), Vince (A5), Wanda (B5) and Xia (C5); the remaining 4 suspects are innocent.
The deduction chain, in plain English
01.C1 · Donna → CRIMINAL
Sue’s clue says Donna is one of the exactly 3 criminals in row 1. Since Donna is explicitly included among those criminals, her identity is fixed by the clue itself. So Donna must be criminal.
02.D1 · Eli → CRIMINAL
Sue’s clue makes row 1 contain exactly 3 criminals, so row 1 contains exactly 1 innocent. Donna’s clue says exactly 1 person in the overlap of row 1 and Frank’s neighbors is innocent, and that overlap is just Berat and Chuck. That means the single innocent allowed in all of row 1 is already among Berat and Chuck. The only person left in row 1 outside that pair, besides Donna, is Eli, so Eli cannot be innocent. So Eli must be criminal.
03.B1 · Chuck → CRIMINAL
Eli’s clue says that Chuck is one of the exactly 12 criminals on the edge. That directly identifies Chuck as criminal. So Chuck must be criminal.
04.A1 · Berat → INNOCENT
Sue’s clue says Donna is one of exactly 3 criminals in row 1. In row 1, Chuck, Donna, and Eli are already criminals, and the only other person there is Berat. If Berat were also a criminal, row 1 would have 4 criminals, which clashes with the clue saying there are exactly 3. So Berat must be innocent.
05.A4 · Quita → CRIMINAL, A3 · Martin → CRIMINAL
Eli’s clue says there are exactly 12 criminals on the edges, so among the 14 edge cells there is exactly 1 innocent edge person left, since Chuck, Donna, and Eli are already known criminals and Berat is already a known innocent on the edge. That one edge innocent has to be one of Frank, Karen, Petra, Tina, Vince, Wanda, Xia, or Zed. Because Martin and Quita are not in that remaining set for the single edge innocent, neither of them can be innocent. So Quita and Martin must be criminal.
06.A2 · Frank → CRIMINAL
Martin's clue says row 2 has exactly 3 criminals, and exactly 2 of those criminals are Olivia's neighbors. So exactly 1 criminal in row 2 must be someone who is not a neighbor of Olivia. In row 2, the only person who is not a neighbor of Olivia is Frank, and there are no known criminals in that non-neighbor spot yet. So Frank must be criminal.
07.D3 · Petra → CRIMINAL
Frank’s clue says Petra is one of Tina’s 3 criminal neighbors. That directly identifies Petra as a criminal neighbor of Tina, not just a possible one. So Petra must be criminal.
08.D2 · Karen → CRIMINAL
Row 2 has exactly 3 criminals, so with 4 people in that row there is exactly 1 innocent there. Frank is already a criminal, and the one innocent in row 2 is among Gabe and Hal. That means Karen is not the innocent person in row 2. So Karen must be criminal.
09.A5 · Vince → CRIMINAL
Eli’s clue says there are exactly 12 criminals on the edge, so among the 5 unknown edge people there is exactly 1 innocent. The only candidates for that one innocent are D4 Tina, B5 Wanda, C5 Xia, and D5 Zed. Since Vince is not among the possible places for that single edge innocent, Vince cannot be innocent. So Vince must be criminal.
10.B4 · Ruby → CRIMINAL
Vince's clue says column B has exactly 4 criminals, so column B contains exactly 1 innocent. Since Chuck is already known to be a criminal, that one innocent must be among Gabe, Noah, Ruby, and Wanda. But the single innocent in that group has to come from Gabe, Noah, or Wanda, so Ruby cannot be the innocent one. That makes Ruby criminal.
11.D4 · Tina → CRIMINAL
Eli's clue says there are exactly 12 criminals on the edge. The edge already has 9 known criminals and 1 known innocent, so among the 4 unknown edge people, exactly 3 are criminals and exactly 1 is innocent. Martin's clue makes row 2 contain exactly 3 criminals. Since Frank and Karen are already criminals there, exactly one of Gabe and Hal is criminal, so exactly one of them is innocent. Ruby's clue says rows 2 and 5 have the same number of innocents, so row 5 also has exactly 1 innocent. The only unknown edge people outside row 2 are Tina, Wanda, Xia, and Zed, and row 5 contains Wanda, Xia, and Zed. Since row 5 already accounts for the single edge innocent, Tina cannot be that innocent. So Tina must be criminal.
12.C5 · Xia → CRIMINAL
Xia is on the edge, and Xia’s neighbors already account for the edge clue’s full innocent allowance. The edge cells have exactly 2 innocents, and the only edge person not included among Xia’s neighbors is Xia. Since the smaller group already contains all 2 innocents allowed in the larger edge group, anyone in the edge group but outside that smaller group cannot be innocent. That makes Xia criminal.
13.C3 · Olivia → CRIMINAL, B3 · Noah → CRIMINAL
There must be exactly 4 innocents on the whole board, and 2 are already known: Berat and Sue. If Olivia and Noah were both innocent, that would use up the remaining 2 innocent spots immediately. Then Gabe, Hal, Wanda, and Zed would all have to be criminals. But the edge clue says there are exactly 12 criminals on the edges, and the row 2 clue says row 2 has exactly 3 criminals. Making Gabe and Hal both criminals would give row 2 too many criminals, while making Wanda and Zed both criminals would fill both unknown edge spots as criminals. Those requirements cannot all hold at the same time. So Olivia and Noah cannot both be innocent. That makes Olivia and Noah criminal.
14.D5 · Zed → INNOCENT
Frank's clue says Petra is one of Tina's exactly 3 criminal neighbors. Tina's neighbors are Olivia, Petra, Sue, Xia, and Zed, and among them Olivia, Petra, and Xia are already known criminals while Sue is innocent. That already fills all 3 criminal-neighbor spots named by the clue, so Zed cannot also be a criminal. So Zed must be innocent.
15.B5 · Wanda → CRIMINAL
Eli's clue says Chuck is one of exactly 12 criminals on the edge. In the edge cells, 11 people are already known to be criminals, 2 are known to be innocents, and Wanda is the only edge person not yet identified. If Wanda were innocent, the edge would still have only 11 criminals, which clashes with the clue's total of 12. So Wanda cannot be innocent. That makes Wanda criminal.
16.C2 · Hal → CRIMINAL
Berat's clue says Petra's neighbors contain an odd number of innocents. Among Petra's neighbors, there is already 1 known innocent, and the only neighbor whose identity is not yet known is Hal. If Hal were innocent, that would make 2 innocents among Petra's neighbors, which is even, not odd. So Hal must be criminal.
17.B2 · Gabe → INNOCENT
In row 2, there are exactly 3 criminals in total. The clue says exactly 2 of those row 2 criminals are Olivia's neighbors, and among the row 2 neighbors of Olivia, C2 Hal and D2 Karen are already known criminals. That already fills the clue's total of 2 criminal neighbors in that group, so the only remaining unknown there, B2 Gabe, cannot be a criminal. So Gabe must be innocent.