Clues by Sam Sep 15, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
A1
👩🏫
teacher
B1
👩💻
coder
C1
👷♂️
builder
D1
👷♂️
builder
A2
🕵️♂️
sleuth
B2
👩💻
coder
C2
👨⚕️
doctor
D2
💂♀️
guard
A3
🕵️♀️
sleuth
B3
👩🏫
teacher
C3
👨⚕️
doctor
D3
👨⚕️
doctor
A4
👩✈️
pilot
B4
👨🔧
mech
C4
👩🔧
mech
D4
💂♀️
guard
A5
👨✈️
pilot
B5
👨✈️
pilot
C5
👨⚖️
judge
D5
👩⚖️
judge
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 Sep 15, 2026 — a Medium solved in 18 steps
Today's Clues by Sam puzzle is rated Medium and resolves with 11 criminals on a 20-cell, 4-column × 5-row grid. The criminals are Amy (A1), Chloe (B1), Eric (D1), Hilda (B2), Igor (C2), Janet (D2), Martin (C3), Quita (A4), Raul (B4), Will (B5) and Xavi (C5); the remaining 9 suspects are innocent.
The deduction chain, in plain English
01.A4 · Quita → CRIMINAL
Pip’s clue says there are no innocents in the overlap of the people above Vince and the people in row 4. That overlap is just Quita. Since that shared group already has 0 known innocents, Quita cannot be innocent. So Quita must be criminal.
02.A2 · Gary → INNOCENT
Quita’s clue says there are exactly two innocents above Vince, and those two innocents must be connected. Above Vince are Amy, Gary, Kay, and Quita, and Quita is already a criminal. If Gary were a criminal, then the two required innocents above Vince would have to be Amy and Kay. But that would make the two innocents above Vince Amy at A1 and Kay at A3, and they are not connected by orthogonal adjacency because Gary is between them. So Gary at A2 must be innocent.
03.A5 · Vince → INNOCENT
Above Vince are Amy, Gary, Kay, and Quita. In that group, the clue says the innocents there must be exactly two and they must be connected, while Gary is already innocent and Quita is already criminal. Column A must contain an odd number of innocents, and right now the only known innocent in that column is Gary, with Amy, Kay, and Vince still unknown. If Vince were criminal, then Amy and Kay would have to satisfy both clues by themselves, but they cannot do that. So Vince must be innocent.
04.B5 · Will → CRIMINAL, C5 · Xavi → CRIMINAL
Vince’s clue says Raul’s neighbors contain exactly 4 criminals, and exactly 2 of those criminals are in row 5. Among Raul’s neighbors who are in row 5, Vince is already innocent, so the row-5 part still needs 2 criminals. The only unknown people left in that row-5 neighbor group are Will and Xavi. So Will and Xavi must be criminal.
05.A1 · Amy → CRIMINAL
Xavi's clue says Amy is one of Gary's 3 criminal neighbors. That directly places Amy among Gary's criminal neighbors, so Amy must be criminal.
06.A3 · Kay → INNOCENT
Above Vince, the people are Amy, Gary, Kay, and Quita. The clue says the two innocents in that group must be connected. Amy and Quita are criminals, and Gary is already innocent, so Kay is the only person left who can be the second innocent above Vince. Gary and Kay are orthogonally adjacent there, which matches the clue. So Kay must be innocent.
07.C4 · Samira → INNOCENT
Kay says row 3 has exactly 3 innocents. Since Kay and Pip are already innocent, exactly one of Lyla and Martin must be innocent. Vince’s clue means Raul’s neighbors contain exactly 4 criminals, so among Raul’s eight neighbors there are exactly 4 innocents. In that neighbor group, Kay and Vince are already innocent, and from row 3 exactly one of Lyla and Martin is innocent. That accounts for 3 innocents among Raul’s neighbors, leaving the only remaining candidate outside that row-3 pair, Samira, to supply the fourth innocent. So Samira must be innocent.
08.B1 · Chloe → CRIMINAL
Between Chloe and Raul, the only people are Hilda and Lyla, and that group contains exactly 1 innocent. Gary’s neighbor group contains exactly 2 innocents total: Amy, Chloe, Hilda, Kay, and Lyla, with Amy already criminal and Kay already innocent. Since Hilda and Lyla account for the between group, that smaller group uses up the remaining 1 innocent allowed in Gary’s neighbor group alongside Kay. The only person left in Gary’s neighbors outside that smaller group is Chloe, so Chloe cannot be innocent. So Chloe must be criminal.
09.B4 · Raul → CRIMINAL
Gary’s clue says his neighbors contain exactly 3 criminals, and among those neighbors Amy and Chloe are already known criminals. That leaves only one more criminal to be found among Hilda and Lyla, so among Hilda and Lyla there must be an odd number of innocents. Will’s clue says an odd number of the people who are both in column B and Kay’s neighbors are innocents, and that group is Hilda, Lyla, and Raul. If Raul were innocent, then Hilda and Lyla would have to make the total for Hilda, Lyla, and Raul odd while also meeting the first clue’s requirement for Hilda and Lyla, and those two demands clash. So Raul must be criminal.
10.D5 · Zara → INNOCENT
Raul’s clue says there is exactly one innocent to the right of Vince. Among those people, there are currently no known innocents, and the only person there whose identity is still unknown is Zara. So the one innocent required by the clue has to be Zara. That makes Zara innocent.
11.C1 · Donld → INNOCENT
Zara’s clue says exactly one corner person has a criminal directly to the left. That one case is already Zara, since her left neighbor fits the clue. The only other undecided left-neighbor situation that could change this corner count is Donld at C1 for the corner person at D1. If Donld were criminal, there would be more than one such corner case, which breaks Zara’s clue. So Donld must be innocent.
12.D1 · Eric → CRIMINAL
Amy’s clue says the builders and the pilots have the same number of innocents. The pilots already have 1 innocent, and the builders also already have 1 innocent. Since Eric is the only builder not yet identified, he cannot also be innocent without giving the builders more innocents than the pilots. So Eric must be criminal.
13.D4 · Um → INNOCENT
Eric’s clue says row 1 has more criminals than row 4. Row 1 already has 3 criminals, while row 4 currently has 2. If Um were a criminal, then row 4 would also have 3 criminals, so row 1 would not have more than row 4. So Um must be innocent.
14.D2 · Janet → CRIMINAL
Chloe’s clue says each column has at least 2 criminals, so a column can have at most 3 innocents. In column D, Eric is already a criminal, while Pip, Um, and Zara are already known innocents, so column D already has those 3 innocents. That means the only person left in column D, Janet, cannot be innocent. So Janet must be criminal.
15.C2 · Igor → CRIMINAL
Janet’s clue says exactly one of the three doctors has an innocent directly above them. Igor already fits that, because Donld is directly above Igor and Donld is innocent. Martin has Igor directly above him, so if Igor were innocent, Martin would also fit the same clue, while Pip does not because Janet above Pip is criminal. That would make more than one doctor with an innocent directly above, which contradicts the clue. So Igor must be criminal.
16.B2 · Hilda → CRIMINAL
The clue says exactly one corner person has exactly one criminal neighbor. Eric does not, because he has 2 criminal neighbors, and Vince does not, because he has 3. Zara does have exactly 1 criminal neighbor, so she is already the one corner that fits the clue. Amy currently has 1 known criminal neighbor, and her only unknown neighbor is Hilda. If Hilda were innocent, Amy would also have exactly 1 criminal neighbor, giving two corners that fit instead of one. So Hilda must be criminal.
17.B3 · Lyla → INNOCENT
Xavi’s clue says Amy is one of the exactly 3 criminals among Gary’s neighbors. Gary’s neighbors are Amy, Chloe, Hilda, Kay, and Lyla. Among them, Amy, Chloe, and Hilda are already criminals, which fills all 3 criminal spots named by the clue. That leaves Lyla as innocent, so Lyla must be innocent.
18.C3 · Martin → CRIMINAL
Vince’s clue says Raul’s neighbors contain exactly 4 criminals, and exactly 2 of those criminals are in row 5. In Raul’s neighboring row 5 group, the two criminals are already Will and Xavi, so the other 2 criminals among Raul’s neighbors must be outside row 5. Among Raul’s neighbors who are not in row 5, Quita is already one known criminal, while Kay, Lyla, and Samira are innocent. That leaves Martin as the only person there who can fill the second non-row-5 criminal spot. So Martin must be criminal.