Clues by Sam Jun 25, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
A1
👨✈️
pilot
B1
👩🎨
painter
C1
🕵️♀️
sleuth
D1
👨🎨
painter
A2
👨✈️
pilot
B2
💂♂️
guard
C2
👩✈️
pilot
D2
👨🎨
painter
A3
💂♂️
guard
B3
👩💻
coder
C3
👩💻
coder
D3
👩💼
clerk
A4
👨⚖️
judge
B4
👨🍳
cook
C4
👩🍳
cook
D4
👨⚖️
judge
A5
👨⚖️
judge
B5
🕵️♀️
sleuth
C5
👩💼
clerk
D5
👩🍳
cook
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 — 11 criminals.
Clues by Sam answer for Jun 25, 2026 — a Tricky solved in 17 steps
Today's Clues by Sam puzzle is rated Tricky and resolves with 11 criminals on a 20-cell, 4-column × 5-row grid. The criminals are Akira (A1), Bonnie (B1), Chloe (C1), Ethan (D1), Floyd (A2), Hazel (C2), Ike (D2), Nancy (D3), Peter (B4), Thor (A5) and Xena (C5); the remaining 9 suspects are innocent.
The deduction chain, in plain English
01.B2 · Gabe → INNOCENT
Mary’s clue directly says that Gabe is one of the exactly 2 innocents above Vera. Since Gabe is explicitly included among those innocents, Gabe at B2 must be innocent.
02.B1 · Bonnie → CRIMINAL
Above Vera there are exactly two innocents: Bonnie, Gabe, Lisa, and Peter. Gabe is already one of them, so only one more innocent can appear among the other three people above Vera. Klay and Ollie have exactly one innocent neighbor in common, and that shared pair is Lisa and Peter. So the one remaining innocent above Vera has to be in Lisa and Peter, not in anyone outside that shared pair. That leaves Bonnie unable to be innocent. So Bonnie must be criminal.
03.B5 · Vera → INNOCENT
Column B has exactly 2 criminals. Bonnie is already one criminal there, so column B needs exactly 1 more criminal. Mary’s clue says there are exactly 2 innocents above Vera, and Gabe is one of them. Above Vera, Bonnie is already the one known criminal, so among Lisa and Peter there is exactly 1 more criminal. That means the remaining criminal needed for column B is already among Lisa and Peter. Vera is in column B but not in that group above her, so Vera cannot also be a criminal. So Vera must be innocent.
04.C5 · Xena → CRIMINAL
Vera's clue says the two innocents below Chloe are connected. Among the people below Chloe, Mary is already known to be innocent, so she must be one of those two. That means the other innocent below Chloe has to be orthogonally next to Mary, which limits it to Hazel or Quita. Xena is not next to Mary in that line, so Xena cannot be the other innocent in the connected pair. So Xena must be criminal.
05.C1 · Chloe → CRIMINAL
Bonnie’s clue says column B is the only column with exactly 2 criminals, and Vera’s clue says the innocents below Chloe are exactly two people who are connected. Below Chloe are Hazel, Mary, Quita, and Xena, with Mary already innocent and Xena already criminal. If Chloe were innocent, the remaining people involved in these clues would have to make both of those conditions true at the same time, but that leads to a conflict. So Chloe cannot be innocent. That makes Chloe criminal.
06.C2 · Hazel → CRIMINAL
Chloe says that exactly 2 of Gabe's 5 criminal neighbors also neighbor her. Among the people who are both Gabe's neighbors and Chloe's neighbors, Bonnie is already a criminal, and the only other person there is Hazel. Since that shared group must contain exactly 2 criminals, Hazel has to be the second one. So Hazel must be criminal.
07.C4 · Quita → INNOCENT
Vera’s clue says there are exactly two innocents below Chloe, and those two innocents are connected. Below Chloe are Hazel, Mary, Quita, and Xena, with Hazel and Xena already criminal and Mary already innocent. If Quita were criminal too, then Mary would be the only innocent below Chloe, which cannot fit a clue requiring both innocents below Chloe to be connected. So Quita must be innocent.
08.A2 · Floyd → CRIMINAL
Chloe’s clue fixes Gabe’s neighborhood at exactly 5 criminals, so with 8 neighbors total that means Gabe has exactly 2 innocent neighbors. Gabe’s neighbors already include Bonnie, Chloe, and Hazel as criminals, and Mary as innocent, so the other four neighbors A1 Akira, A2 Floyd, A3 Klay, and B3 Lisa must contain exactly 2 innocents. The two criminals in Gabe’s neighborhood who also neighbor Chloe are already Bonnie and Hazel, so the remaining criminals in Gabe’s neighborhood must be people who do not neighbor Chloe. That leaves the two needed innocents to come from Akira, Klay, and Lisa instead, not Floyd. So Floyd must be criminal.
09.A5 · Thor → CRIMINAL
Floyd’s clue says the people above Thor contain exactly 2 innocents, and among those four people there are currently no known innocents, so the two innocents above Thor have to come from Akira, Klay, and Ollie. At the same time, Bonnie’s clue fixes column B as the only column with exactly 2 criminals. If Thor were innocent, the remaining unknown people named here would have to satisfy both of those requirements together, and they cannot. That rules out Thor being innocent. So Thor must be criminal.
10.D4 · Rohan → INNOCENT, D2 · Ike → CRIMINAL
Thor’s clue says exactly one corner person has exactly 2 criminal neighbors. Akira already has exactly 2 criminal neighbors, and Akira has no unknown neighbors, so Akira is definitely one such corner. If Ike were innocent and Rohan were criminal, then Ethan would also have exactly 2 criminal neighbors, while Zara would have 2 criminal neighbors as well because Zara already has 1 and Rohan would add another. That would give more than one corner person with exactly 2 criminal neighbors, which clashes with Thor’s clue. So Rohan must be innocent and Ike must be criminal.
11.A3 · Klay → INNOCENT
Rohan says exactly 2 pilots have an innocent directly below them. Akira cannot be one of them because the person directly below Akira is Floyd, who is criminal, while Hazel already is one because Mary, directly below Hazel, is innocent. That means there must be 1 more such pilot, and the only remaining place that can provide it is Floyd with Klay directly below him. So Klay must be innocent.
12.D1 · Ethan → CRIMINAL
Klay’s clue directly says that Ethan is one of the three criminals in column D. Since Ethan is explicitly included among those criminals, his identity is fixed by the clue itself. So Ethan must be criminal.
13.B4 · Peter → CRIMINAL, B3 · Lisa → INNOCENT
Bonnie’s clue says column B has exactly 2 criminals, so with Bonnie already criminal and Gabe and Vera already innocent, the second criminal in column B has to be either Lisa or Peter. Testing the opposite assignment, with Lisa criminal and Peter innocent, clashes with the other clues that must be satisfied at the same time by Akira, Nancy, Ollie, and Zara. In particular, Ethan’s row clue and Klay’s statement that column D has exactly 3 criminals cannot all be met under that split of column B. So the only workable way to make column B total exactly 2 criminals is for Peter to be the second criminal and Lisa not to be. That makes Peter criminal and Lisa innocent.
14.A1 · Akira → CRIMINAL
Chloe says Gabe has exactly 5 criminal neighbors, and exactly 2 of those criminals also neighbor Chloe. Those 2 are Bonnie and Hazel, so Gabe's neighbors who do not neighbor Chloe must contain exactly 3 criminals. Among Gabe's neighbors who do not neighbor Chloe, Chloe and Floyd are already known criminals, while Klay, Lisa, and Mary are innocents. That group therefore has only 2 criminals so far and needs 1 more, and the only unknown person left in that group is Akira. So Akira must be criminal.
15.A4 · Ollie → INNOCENT
Floyd says there are exactly 2 innocents above Thor. Above Thor, there is already 1 known innocent, and the only person there whose identity is still unknown is Ollie. That group still needs exactly 1 more innocent, so Ollie has to be that innocent. So Ollie must be innocent.
16.D5 · Zara → INNOCENT
Ethan’s clue says exactly one row has exactly 2 criminals. Rows 1, 2, 4, and 5 are the rows that matter here, because Zara is in row 5 and Nancy is the other unknown person involved. If Zara were a criminal, row 5 would have exactly 2 criminals, since Thor and Xena are already criminals there. But that would make the clue impossible to satisfy with these remaining people, because those same unknowns would then have to fit the “exactly one row has exactly 2 criminals” requirement and they cannot do so. So Zara at D5 must be innocent.
17.D3 · Nancy → CRIMINAL
Bonnie’s clue says column B is the only column with exactly 2 criminals. Column D already has 2 known criminals, and Nancy at D3 is the only person in that column whose identity is not yet fixed. If Nancy were innocent, then column D would remain at exactly 2 criminals, which the clue forbids for every column other than B. So Nancy must be criminal.