Clues by Sam Sep 13, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
A1
👨🏫
teacher
B1
👨🎤
singer
C1
👩⚖️
judge
D1
👨🔧
mech
A2
👩🏫
teacher
B2
👨🏫
teacher
C2
👩⚖️
judge
D2
👨🔧
mech
A3
💂♂️
guard
B3
💂♀️
guard
C3
👩⚖️
judge
D3
👨🔧
mech
A4
💂♀️
guard
B4
👩🎤
singer
C4
👩🎨
painter
D4
👨🎨
painter
A5
👩🍳
cook
B5
👨🍳
cook
C5
👨💻
coder
D5
👩💻
coder
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 — 6 criminals.
Clues by Sam answer for Sep 13, 2026 — a Hard solved in 18 steps
Today's Clues by Sam puzzle is rated Hard and resolves with 6 criminals on a 20-cell, 4-column × 5-row grid. The criminals are Adam (A1), Ivan (D2), Katie (B3), Nicole (A4), Umar (B5) and Vince (C5); the remaining 14 suspects are innocent.
The deduction chain, in plain English
01.B3 · Katie → CRIMINAL
Martin’s clue says Linda has exactly 2 criminal neighbors, and exactly 1 of those criminals is to the right of Jason. Among Linda’s neighbors who are to the right of Jason, the only people are Katie and Martin. Martin is already innocent, so that group still needs 1 criminal and Katie is the only unknown left in it. So Katie must be criminal.
02.C4 · Quita → INNOCENT
Katie’s clue says that Quita is one of Martin’s 4 innocent neighbors. That directly places Quita among the innocent people in Martin’s neighboring group. So Quita must be innocent.
03.C2 · Helen → INNOCENT
Assume Helen were criminal. Linda’s clue says Linda has exactly 2 criminal neighbors, and exactly 1 of those criminals is to the right of Jason; since Katie is already the one criminal there and Martin is innocent, the other criminal neighbor of Linda cannot be to the right of Jason. That leaves the other criminal neighbor as Helen, which makes Gabe, Ivan, Pam, and Ryan innocent. Then row 2 would have Gabe innocent, Helen criminal, and Ivan innocent, but Quita’s clue says all innocents in row 2 must be connected, and Gabe and Ivan would be split apart by Helen. So Helen at C2 must be innocent.
04.A3 · Jason → INNOCENT
Helen’s clue says Jason is one of Gabe’s 6 innocent neighbors. That directly identifies Jason as innocent. So Jason must be innocent.
05.B2 · Gabe → INNOCENT
Assume Gabe were criminal. Linda’s clue says Linda has exactly two criminal neighbors, and exactly one of those criminals is to the right of Jason; among the people to the right of Jason, Katie is already a criminal and Martin is innocent, so the second criminal neighbor of Linda cannot also be to the right of Jason. That makes Ivan, Pam, and Ryan innocent, which leaves Linda as the other criminal neighbor. Now Gabe’s own clue says Jason is one of Gabe’s six innocent neighbors. With Katie criminal and Linda now criminal, that forces Adam, Chase, Debra, and Frida to be innocent to make Gabe’s neighbor total reach six innocents. But then row 2 has Frida innocent, Gabe criminal, Helen innocent, and Ivan innocent, so the innocents in row 2 are not one connected block. That contradicts Quita’s clue. So Gabe at B2 must be innocent.
06.D5 · Xola → INNOCENT
Gabe’s clue directly says that Xola is one of the 9 innocents on the edges. Since Xola is explicitly included in that innocent group, Xola must be innocent.
07.C3 · Linda → INNOCENT, D1 · Erwin → INNOCENT
Gabe’s neighbors must contain exactly 6 innocents, Martin’s neighbors must contain exactly 4 innocents, the edge cells must contain exactly 9 innocents, and among Pam’s neighbors on the edge there must be exactly 2 innocents. The people involved in those same requirements are Adam, Chase, Debra, Frida, Ivan, Nicole, Ryan, Samira, Umar, Vince, plus Linda and Erwin. If Linda were criminal and Erwin were criminal, those remaining people would have to meet all four of those counts at the same time, but they cannot. That means Linda and Erwin cannot both have that opposite identity. So Linda and Erwin must be innocent.
08.B4 · Pam → INNOCENT
Martin’s clue fixes his neighbors at exactly 4 innocents, and Helen, Linda, and Quita are already three of them. That means the two unknown neighbors there, Ivan and Ryan, contain exactly one more innocent. Linda’s neighbors must contain exactly 6 innocents. Among Linda’s neighbors, Gabe, Helen, Martin, and Quita are already known innocents, and Ivan plus Ryan contribute exactly one more innocent between them, bringing that shared part to 5 innocents total. The only other person in Linda’s neighbor list outside that shared part is Pam, so Pam has to provide the sixth innocent. So Pam must be innocent.
09.A4 · Nicole → CRIMINAL
The people to the left of Xola are Samira, Umar, and Vince, and that group contains exactly 1 innocent. The edge-neighbors of Pam are Jason, Nicole, Samira, Umar, and Vince, and that group contains exactly 2 innocents. Among those five, the only person who is not also in Xola's left-of group is Nicole, while Jason is already a known innocent. So the single innocent from Samira, Umar, and Vince together with Jason already accounts for the 2 innocents required in Pam's edge-neighbor group, leaving no room for Nicole to be innocent. So Nicole must be criminal.
10.D4 · Ryan → INNOCENT
Pam’s clue says exactly one corner person has an innocent directly above them. There must be one such case beyond the ones already known, and the only direct-above person still undecided for this clue is D4 Ryan. So to supply that required case, Ryan has to be innocent. That makes Ryan innocent.
11.D2 · Ivan → CRIMINAL
Linda’s neighbors must include exactly 2 criminals, and exactly 1 of those criminals is to the right of Jason. Among Linda’s neighbors who are to the right of Jason, Katie is already that 1 criminal. So among Linda’s neighbors who are not to the right of Jason, there must also be exactly 1 criminal. That group is Gabe, Helen, Ivan, Pam, Quita, and Ryan, and all of them are already known innocent except Ivan. So Ivan must be criminal.
12.A2 · Frida → INNOCENT
If Frida were criminal, then Gabe’s neighbors would already have 3 known innocents, 1 known criminal, and 4 unknown people, but Helen’s clue says Gabe has exactly 6 innocent neighbors. That means the other three row 1 neighbors of Gabe, Adam, Chase, and Debra, all have to be innocent to bring Gabe’s innocent-neighbor total up to 6. But then row 1 would have 4 innocents total: Adam, Chase, Debra, and Erwin. Ryan’s clue says rows 1 and 2 have the same number of innocents, while row 2 has only 2 innocents. That clashes with the clue, so Frida cannot be criminal. So Frida must be innocent.
13.C1 · Debra → INNOCENT
Frida's clue says that among her neighbors in row 1, exactly one is innocent, and that group is just Adam and Chase. Gabe's clue says he has exactly six innocent neighbors. Among Gabe's neighbors, four are already known innocents outside row 1: Frida, Helen, Jason, and Linda. Since Adam and Chase together contribute exactly one innocent, Gabe still needs one more innocent neighbor beyond those five. The only remaining person in Gabe's neighbors outside the Adam-Chase pair is Debra. So Debra must be innocent.
14.C5 · Vince → CRIMINAL
Gabe's clue says there are exactly 9 innocents on the edges, and 7 edge innocents are already known. So the remaining 2 edge innocents have to come from the unknown edge people. Those 2 edge innocents are accounted for by Adam, Chase, Samira, and Umar, which leaves Vince outside that pair. So Vince at C5 must be criminal.
15.B1 · Chase → INNOCENT
Vince’s clue says plainly that Chase is innocent. So Chase at B1 must be innocent.
16.A1 · Adam → CRIMINAL
Helen's clue says Jason is one of the exactly 6 innocent neighbors of Gabe. Among Gabe's neighbors, the six innocents are already Chase, Debra, Frida, Helen, Jason, and Linda, and Katie is criminal. That leaves Adam as the only neighbor who is not part of those six innocents, so Adam must be criminal.
17.A5 · Samira → INNOCENT
Debra’s clue says each column has at least 3 innocents, so any column can have at most 2 criminals. In column A, there are already 2 known criminals: Adam at A1 and Nicole at A4. That means the only unfixed person left in column A, Samira at A5, cannot be a criminal. So Samira must be innocent.
18.B5 · Umar → CRIMINAL
Gabe's clue says Xola is one of exactly 9 innocents on the edge. In the edge cells, there are already 9 known innocents: Chase, Debra, Erwin, Frida, Jason, Martin, Ryan, Samira, and Xola. Since that full total of 9 edge innocents is already accounted for, the only unknown edge person cannot also be innocent. So Umar must be criminal.