Clues by Sam Sep 07, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
A1
👩💼
clerk
B1
👷♀️
builder
C1
👨🍳
cook
D1
👨💻
coder
A2
👮♀️
cop
B2
👷♂️
builder
C2
👮♂️
cop
D2
👨🍳
cook
A3
👨✈️
pilot
B3
👩✈️
pilot
C3
👨✈️
pilot
D3
👩💻
coder
A4
👩🎤
singer
B4
👩🎤
singer
C4
👩🎤
singer
D4
👨🔧
mech
A5
👩💼
clerk
B5
👷♀️
builder
C5
👨💻
coder
D5
👨🔧
mech
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 — 12 criminals.
Clues by Sam answer for Sep 07, 2026 — a Easy solved in 17 steps
Today's Clues by Sam puzzle is rated Easy and resolves with 12 criminals on a 20-cell, 4-column × 5-row grid. The criminals are Amy (A1), Betty (B1), Ellie (A2), Frank (B2), Gus (C2), Joyce (B3), Logan (C3), Rose (C4), Vicky (A5), Wanda (B5), Xavi (C5) and Zach (D5); the remaining 8 suspects are innocent.
The deduction chain, in plain English
01.B1 · Betty → CRIMINAL
Terry’s clue says that the only innocent above Wanda is below Betty. So any innocent among the people above Wanda has to be in the overlap with the people below Betty. Betty is above Wanda, but she is not below Betty. That puts her outside the only place where an innocent above Wanda is allowed to be. So Betty at B1 must be criminal.
02.C1 · Clyde → INNOCENT
Betty's clue says the people strictly between Amy and Daniel contain exactly one innocent. In that group, there are currently no known innocents, and the only person there whose identity is still unknown is Clyde. So the one innocent required between Amy and Daniel has to be Clyde. That makes Clyde innocent.
03.C2 · Gus → CRIMINAL
Above Logan, the people are Clyde and Gus. Clyde’s clue says there is an odd number of innocents above Logan, and at the moment Clyde is the only known innocent there, so that group already has 1 innocent. If Gus were also innocent, the total would become 2, which is even, not odd. So Gus must be criminal.
04.C4 · Rose → CRIMINAL
Gus's clue says Mary has exactly 3 criminal neighbors, and exactly 1 of those criminals is also a neighbor of Xavi. Among the people who are both Mary's neighbors and Xavi's neighbors, Terry is innocent and the only unknown person there is Rose. So that shared group still needs 1 criminal, and Rose is the only person who can fill it. That makes Rose criminal.
05.C3 · Logan → CRIMINAL
Rose’s clue says that all criminals below Clyde have to be connected as one orthogonally linked group. Below Clyde, the relevant people are Gus, Logan, Rose, and Xavi, and among them Gus and Rose are already known to be criminals. For those known criminals below Clyde to be connected in that group, Logan has to be criminal. So Logan must be criminal.
06.D2 · Hal → INNOCENT
Mary’s neighbors contain exactly 3 criminals in total. Gus’s clue says exactly 1 of those criminals is also a neighbor of Xavi, and among the people shared by Mary and Xavi, Rose is the only criminal there while Terry is innocent. That leaves the other part of Mary’s neighborhood, namely Gus, Hal, and Logan. Gus and Logan are already the other 2 known criminals in that remaining group, so Hal cannot also be a criminal. So Hal must be innocent.
07.D3 · Mary → INNOCENT, B2 · Frank → CRIMINAL
Logan says he and Rose have exactly 3 innocent neighbors in common. That common-neighbor group is Joyce, Mary, Pam, and Terry, and Terry is already innocent, so two of Joyce, Mary, and Pam must also be innocent. Now test the opposite pair: Mary criminal and Frank innocent. Terry’s clue says the only innocent above Wanda must be below Betty, so if Frank were innocent then Frank would be that only innocent above Wanda. But with Mary criminal, Logan and Rose would still need two innocents from Joyce and Pam to reach their total of 3 common innocent neighbors, and that combination cannot satisfy both clues at once. So Mary must be innocent and Frank must be criminal.
08.D1 · Daniel → INNOCENT
Mary’s clue says Gus and Hal have exactly 3 innocent neighbors in common. Their shared neighbor group is Clyde, Daniel, Logan, and Mary. In that group, Clyde and Mary are already innocent and Logan is criminal, so the shared group still needs 1 more innocent, and Daniel is the only unknown person left there. So Daniel must be innocent.
09.A2 · Ellie → CRIMINAL
Daniel’s clue says Amy and Mary have the same number of criminal neighbors. Mary’s neighbors already contain 3 criminals. Amy’s neighbors currently contain 2 criminals, and the only unknown among Amy’s neighbors is Ellie. So Ellie has to supply the missing criminal neighbor for Amy to match Mary. That makes Ellie criminal.
10.A4 · Olive → INNOCENT
Ellie’s clue says the two criminals above Vicky must be connected. Above Vicky, Ellie is already one known criminal, so the other criminal in that group has to be orthogonally next to Ellie. That means the second criminal can only be Amy or Isaac, and Olive is not next to Ellie in that line. So Olive must be innocent.
11.B5 · Wanda → CRIMINAL
Olive’s clue says exactly 2 coders have a criminal directly to their left. Daniel does not qualify because Clyde, directly left of him, is innocent, while Mary does qualify because Logan, directly left of her, is criminal. That leaves one more coder who must qualify, and the only remaining coder case is Xavi, whose directly left neighbor is Wanda. So Wanda must be criminal.
12.C5 · Xavi → CRIMINAL
Wanda’s clue says there are more criminal coders than criminal cooks. Right now the cooks have 0 criminals, and the coders also have 0 known criminals. The only coder not yet identified is Xavi, so for coders to have more criminals than cooks, Xavi has to be the criminal coder. So Xavi must be criminal.
13.A5 · Vicky → CRIMINAL
Xavi’s clue says column A has more criminals than innocents, so in that five-person column there must be at least 3 criminals. If Vicky were innocent, then with Ellie already a criminal and Olive already innocent, the only way to reach at least 3 criminals in column A would be for Amy and Isaac to both be criminals. But then the people above Vicky would be Amy criminal, Ellie criminal, Isaac criminal, and Olive innocent. Ellie’s clue says both criminals above Vicky are connected, and with Amy and Isaac both criminal, the criminals above Vicky would not fit that requirement. So Vicky cannot be innocent. So Vicky must be criminal.
14.D5 · Zach → CRIMINAL
Vicky's clue says row 5 has more criminals than any other row. Row 5 already has three known criminals, with Zach the only unknown person there. Row 2 also already has three known criminals, so for row 5 to have more criminals than every other row, row 5 cannot stay at three. That makes Zach at D5 criminal.
15.A1 · Amy → CRIMINAL, B4 · Pam → INNOCENT
Zach’s clue says row 4 is the only row with exactly 3 innocents. In row 4, Olive and Terry are already innocent and Rose is criminal, so the only way for row 4 to reach exactly 3 innocents is for Pam to be innocent. Row 1 already has Clyde and Daniel as innocents, so if Amy were also innocent then row 1 would also have exactly 3 innocents, which the clue forbids because row 4 is the only such row. So Amy must be criminal and Pam must be innocent.
16.A3 · Isaac → INNOCENT
Ellie’s clue says that the people above Vicky contain both criminals there, and those two criminals must be connected. Above Vicky, Amy and Ellie are already the two known criminals, while Olive is innocent and Isaac is the only unknown person in that group. If Isaac were a criminal, there would be more than those two criminals above Vicky, which would contradict the clue. So Isaac must be innocent.
17.B3 · Joyce → CRIMINAL
Terry says the only innocent above Wanda is below Betty. Among the people above Wanda, Pam is already a known innocent, and she is in the group below Betty, so that one allowed innocent is already accounted for. The only unknown person above Wanda is Joyce, so Joyce cannot also be innocent. So Joyce must be criminal.