Clues by Sam Jul 05, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
A1
👷♀️
builder
B1
💂♂️
guard
C1
💂♀️
guard
D1
👷♂️
builder
A2
👮♀️
cop
B2
👮♂️
cop
C2
👨🏫
teacher
D2
👷♀️
builder
A3
🕵️♂️
sleuth
B3
🕵️♀️
sleuth
C3
👩🏫
teacher
D3
👨🍳
cook
A4
🕵️♂️
sleuth
B4
💂♀️
guard
C4
👩🏫
teacher
D4
👨🌾
farmer
A5
👮♀️
cop
B5
👨🍳
cook
C5
👩🍳
cook
D5
👨🌾
farmer
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 Jul 05, 2026 — a Hard solved in 15 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 Bonnie (A1), Chad (B1), Gabe (D1), Hilda (A2), Jose (C2), Logan (A3), Max (B3), Nancy (C3), Oscar (D3), Phil (A4), Sue (C4), Terry (D4), Wally (B5), Xola (C5) and Ziad (D5); the remaining 5 suspects are innocent.
The deduction chain, in plain English
01.D3 · Oscar → CRIMINAL, D4 · Terry → CRIMINAL, D5 · Ziad → CRIMINAL
Katie’s clue says exactly 2 criminals in column D have a criminal directly above them. In column D, Katie is innocent, and there are no known criminals there yet; the only people left who could make that clue true are Gabe, Oscar, Terry, and Ziad. If Oscar, Terry, and Ziad were all innocent, then those remaining people could not satisfy Katie’s clue. So Oscar, Terry, and Ziad must be criminals.
02.B3 · Max → CRIMINAL
Above Max, Chad and Ivan contain exactly one innocent. Above Ruby, Chad, Ivan, and Max also contain exactly one innocent. Since Ruby’s larger group has the same one-innocent limit as the smaller Chad-and-Ivan group, that one innocent must already be among Chad and Ivan, leaving no room for Max to be innocent. So Max must be criminal.
03.A2 · Hilda → CRIMINAL
Terry’s clue says that among the people above Max, Chad and Ivan, exactly one is innocent. Max’s clue says Bonnie’s neighbors, Chad, Hilda, and Ivan, also contain exactly one innocent. Chad and Ivan are the overlap between those two groups, and they already account for the one innocent allowed among Bonnie’s neighbors. That leaves no innocent slot for the only extra person in Bonnie’s neighbor group, Hilda. So Hilda must be criminal.
04.B4 · Ruby → INNOCENT
Hilda’s clue says that Ruby is one of the exactly 2 innocents in column B. That directly identifies Ruby as innocent. So Ruby must be innocent.
05.B5 · Wally → CRIMINAL
The two people above Max are Chad and Ivan, and Terry’s clue says there is exactly one innocent among those two. Hilda’s clue says column B has exactly two innocents total, with Ruby being one of them. That means the other innocent in column B must already be the one among Chad and Ivan, so the people in column B outside that pair cannot be innocent. Wally is the only such remaining person, so Wally must be criminal.
06.D1 · Gabe → CRIMINAL
Terry’s clue fixes the people above Max at exactly one innocent, and those two people are Chad and Ivan. Ruby’s clue also says that exactly one column has exactly 3 criminals. If Gabe were innocent, then the remaining unknown people involved here would have to satisfy both of those facts at the same time, but they cannot. So Gabe cannot be innocent. So Gabe must be criminal.
07.C3 · Nancy → CRIMINAL
Gabe’s clue says Nancy is one of Ivan’s 7 criminal neighbors. That directly identifies Nancy as one of the criminals in that neighbor group. So Nancy must be criminal.
08.B1 · Chad → CRIMINAL
Oscar’s clue says there are 2 criminals in row 1 with an innocent directly below, and Gabe at D1 cannot be one of them because Katie at D2 is innocent while the other row 1 people still have unknown statuses below them. That means among Ivan’s neighbors there is exactly 1 innocent, and it has to be among Bonnie, Chad, Frida, Jose, and Logan. But that one innocent cannot be Chad, so the only possible places for that single innocent are Bonnie, Frida, Jose, or Logan. This leaves Chad as criminal.
09.B2 · Ivan → INNOCENT
Terry's clue says the people above Max contain exactly one innocent. Right now that group has no known innocents, and the only person there whose identity is still unknown is Ivan. So the one innocent required above Max has to be Ivan. That makes Ivan innocent.
10.A4 · Phil → CRIMINAL, A3 · Logan → CRIMINAL
Chad's clue fixes the edge to exactly 11 criminals, and with the edge people who are Chad's neighbors, that leaves exactly 1 innocent among the edge people who are not Chad's neighbors: Logan, Phil, Vera, and Xola. Wally's row 5 clue puts that innocent among the row 5 people Vera and Xola. So the one innocent in Logan, Phil, Vera, and Xola must be Vera or Xola, not Logan or Phil. That makes Phil and Logan criminals.
11.A1 · Bonnie → CRIMINAL, C4 · Sue → CRIMINAL
Phil’s clue says exactly 2 edge people have an innocent directly above them. That total is already filled by Oscar and Wally. The only other people whose identity could still change this clue’s count are Bonnie and Sue, and if either of them were innocent, there would be more than 2 such edge people. So Bonnie and Sue must be criminal.
12.C1 · Frida → INNOCENT
Among the edge cells, exactly 11 people are criminals. Of the edge cells that are neighbors of Chad, Bonnie and Hilda are already known criminals, and the clue says exactly 2 edge-cell criminals can be Chad's neighbors. Frida is the only unknown person in that edge-neighbor group, so she cannot also be a criminal. So Frida must be innocent.
13.C2 · Jose → CRIMINAL
Gabe’s clue says Nancy is one of Ivan’s exactly 7 criminal neighbors. Among Ivan’s neighbors, Bonnie, Chad, Hilda, Logan, Max, and Nancy are already known criminals, and Frida is known innocent, leaving Jose as the only neighbor not yet identified. If Jose were innocent, Ivan’s neighbors would contain only those 6 criminals, not the 7 required by the clue. So Jose must be criminal.
14.C5 · Xola → CRIMINAL
Ruby’s clue says only one column has exactly 3 criminals. Column B already has exactly 3 criminals: Chad, Max, and Wally. Column C also already has 3 known criminals, with Xola as the only person in that column not yet identified. If Xola were innocent, column C would also have exactly 3 criminals, which would clash with Ruby’s clue. So Xola must be criminal.
15.A5 · Vera → INNOCENT
Wally’s clue says there is exactly one innocent in row 5 who has a criminal directly above them. In row 5, the only person not already known to be a criminal is Vera; Wally, Xola, and Ziad are all criminals, and there are no known innocents there. So if Vera were also a criminal, row 5 would contain no innocent at all, which cannot fit the clue’s requirement of exactly one innocent in that row. That makes Vera innocent.