Clues by Sam Sep 10, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
A1
🕵️♀️
sleuth
B1
🕵️♂️
sleuth
C1
👩🌾
farmer
D1
💂♀️
guard
A2
👷♀️
builder
B2
👮♂️
cop
C2
👮♂️
cop
D2
👮♂️
cop
A3
👷♂️
builder
B3
🕵️♀️
sleuth
C3
💂♂️
guard
D3
👨⚕️
doctor
A4
👷♀️
builder
B4
👨🌾
farmer
C4
💂♀️
guard
D4
👩🌾
farmer
A5
👩🍳
cook
B5
👩🍳
cook
C5
👩🍳
cook
D5
👨⚕️
doctor
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 — 5 criminals.
Clues by Sam answer for Sep 10, 2026 — a Tricky solved in 19 steps
Today's Clues by Sam puzzle is rated Tricky and resolves with 5 criminals on a 20-cell, 4-column × 5-row grid. The criminals are Alice (A1), Berat (B1), Cheryl (C1), Laura (B3) and Zach (D5); the remaining 15 suspects are innocent.
The deduction chain, in plain English
01.A5 · Uma → INNOCENT
Hal’s clue says directly that Uma is one of the exactly 4 innocents in column A. Since Uma is explicitly included among those innocents, Uma must be innocent.
02.A2 · Freya → INNOCENT
Uma’s clue says Freya is one of the exactly 2 innocents above Olive. That identifies Freya herself as belonging to the innocent group named by the clue. So Freya must be innocent.
03.A4 · Olive → INNOCENT
The people above Olive are Alice, Freya, and Kumar, and exactly 2 of them are innocents. Column A as a whole has Alice, Freya, Kumar, Olive, and Uma, and exactly 4 of them are innocents. The only person in column A who is not among the people above Olive is Olive. So when the innocent total goes from 2 above Olive to 4 in all of column A, Olive has to be part of what supplies that increase. So Olive must be innocent.
04.B1 · Berat → CRIMINAL
Hal’s clue says column A contains exactly 4 innocents. In column A, Freya, Olive, and Uma are already innocent, so among Alice and Kumar, exactly one must be innocent. Freya’s clue says an odd number of her neighbors on the edge are innocent. The people who are both edge cells and Freya’s neighbors are Alice, Berat, and Kumar, so an odd number of Alice, Berat, and Kumar must be innocent. If Berat were innocent, then since exactly one of Alice and Kumar is innocent, the total number of innocents among Alice, Berat, and Kumar would be 2, which is even, not odd. That contradicts Freya’s clue, so Berat must be criminal.
05.C1 · Cheryl → CRIMINAL
Column A has exactly 4 innocents, and Freya, Olive, and Uma are already innocent, so among Alice and Kumar there is exactly 1 innocent. In the edge-neighbor group for Gary, there must be exactly 2 innocents, and that group is A1 Alice, B1 Berat, C1 Cheryl, A2 Freya, and A3 Kumar. Since Berat is criminal and Freya is innocent, the only possible innocents in that group are Alice, Cheryl, and Kumar, and exactly 1 of Alice and Kumar is innocent. That means Alice and Kumar together with Freya already account for the 2 innocents allowed there, so Cheryl cannot be innocent. So Cheryl must be criminal.
06.B3 · Laura → CRIMINAL
Cheryl's clue says Gary has exactly 4 criminal neighbors, and exactly 1 of those criminals is also Martin's neighbor. Among the people who are both Gary's neighbors and Martin's neighbors, Hal is innocent and Laura is the only unknown person left. So the one criminal required in that overlap has to be Laura. That makes Laura criminal.
07.C3 · Martin → INNOCENT
Hal says column A has exactly 4 innocents. In column A, Freya, Olive, and Uma are already innocent, so the only people there who can supply the remaining innocent are Alice and Kumar. Gary’s clue says there are exactly 4 people of the required kind among Gary’s neighbors. Among Gary’s neighbors, Alice, Freya, and Kumar are the people from column A, so the only neighbor left outside that group who can make up the difference is Martin. So Martin must be innocent.
08.B2 · Gary → INNOCENT
Hal’s clue says column A has exactly 4 innocents. Since Freya, Olive, and Uma are already innocent there, the two unknown people in column A, Alice and Kumar, must contain exactly 1 innocent. Martin’s clue says Freya has exactly 2 innocent neighbors. Among Freya’s neighbors, Berat and Laura are already criminals, so the only possible innocent neighbors are Alice, Gary, and Kumar, and exactly 2 of those 3 must be innocent. Alice and Kumar together contribute exactly 1 innocent, so to reach the required total of 2 innocent neighbors for Freya, the remaining person, Gary, has to be the other innocent. So Gary must be innocent.
09.B5 · Vera → INNOCENT
Gary’s clue says Vera is one of Rose’s 6 innocent neighbors. That directly places Vera among the innocent neighbors of Rose, so Vera must be innocent. So Vera must be innocent.
10.C5 · Wanda → INNOCENT
Assume Wanda were criminal. Rose’s neighbors would then have Laura as the one criminal, Martin and Vera as known innocents, and the clue says Vera is one of Rose’s exactly 6 innocent neighbors, so Nick, Paul, Tina, and Zach would all have to be innocent to make those 6 innocents. But then column B would have 2 criminals, while column C would also have 2 criminals, Cheryl and Wanda. That contradicts Laura’s clue that there are more criminals in column B than in column C. So Wanda at C5 must be innocent.
11.D3 · Nick → INNOCENT
Wanda’s clue says that Nick is one of Tina’s exactly four innocent neighbors. Since Nick is explicitly included among those innocent neighbors, Nick must be innocent. So Nick must be innocent.
12.D4 · Tina → INNOCENT
If Tina were criminal, then Rose's neighbors would still need exactly 6 innocents. In Rose's neighbor list, Laura is already criminal and Martin, Nick, Vera, and Wanda are already innocent, so Paul would have to be innocent to bring Rose's neighbors up to that total. Then Laura's clue about column B having more criminals than column C keeps Rose from being criminal, because column B already has 2 criminals to column C's 1, and making Paul innocent means the only way to preserve that comparison is for Rose to be innocent. Now Tina's neighbors must contain exactly 4 innocents including Nick. Martin, Nick, and Wanda are already innocent there, and with Rose innocent, the fourth innocent has to be Zach. That makes Tina's neighbors Martin, Nick, Rose, Wanda, and Zach all innocent, which is 5 innocents, not 4. So Tina at D4 must be innocent.
13.A1 · Alice → CRIMINAL
Tina’s clue says that exactly 2 of the 4 criminals on the edge are Berat’s neighbors. Among the edge people who are neighbors of Berat, Cheryl is already a known criminal and Freya is already innocent, so that group still needs 1 more criminal. The only unknown person left in that neighbor-on-the-edge group is Alice. So Alice must be criminal.
14.A3 · Kumar → INNOCENT
Hal’s clue says Uma is one of exactly 4 innocents in column A. In column A, Freya, Olive, and Uma are already known innocents, while Alice is a criminal, so the only person left there who can fill the fourth innocent spot is Kumar. So Kumar must be innocent.
15.D1 · Ellie → INNOCENT
Vera’s clue says row 1 contains exactly one innocent. In row 1, there are currently no known innocents, and the only person there whose status is still unknown is Ellie. So the one innocent that row 1 still needs has to be Ellie. That makes Ellie innocent.
16.D2 · Ike → INNOCENT
Martin’s clue says he has an odd number of innocent neighbors. Right now Martin already has 4 known innocent neighbors, and the only unknown neighbors left are Ike, Paul, and Rose. Rose’s clue requires exactly 6 innocents among Rose’s neighbors, where 5 are already known innocent, so Paul and Zach cannot both be criminals. Tina’s clue requires exactly 4 innocents among Tina’s neighbors, where 3 are already known innocent, so Rose and Zach cannot both be criminals. If Ike were criminal, then Paul, Rose, and Zach would have to satisfy those two exact-neighbor counts while also making Martin’s total number of innocent neighbors odd, and that cannot be done. So Ike must be innocent.
17.D5 · Zach → CRIMINAL
Tina’s clue says there are exactly 4 criminals on the edge, and exactly 2 of those edge criminals are neighbors of Berat. Those 2 are already accounted for by Alice and Cheryl, so the edge people who are not neighbors of Berat must contain exactly 2 criminals. Among the edge people who are not neighbors of Berat, Berat is already one known criminal. Everyone else there is known innocent except Zach, so the only person who can supply the second criminal is Zach. So Zach must be criminal.
18.B4 · Paul → INNOCENT
Gary's clue says Vera is one of Rose's exactly 6 innocent neighbors. Among Rose's neighbors, Laura and Zach are criminal, Martin, Nick, Tina, Vera, and Wanda are already known innocent, and only Paul is still unknown. That gives Rose 5 known innocent neighbors already, so the sixth innocent neighbor has to be Paul. So Paul must be innocent.
19.C4 · Rose → INNOCENT
Laura’s clue says column B has more criminals than column C. Column B already has 2 criminals, while column C currently has 1. The only unknown person in column C is Rose, so if Rose were a criminal then column C would also have 2 criminals, which would not be more in column B. So Rose must be innocent.