Clues by Sam Sep 21, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
A1
🕵️♀️
sleuth
B1
👨🌾
farmer
C1
👷♀️
builder
D1
👨⚖️
judge
A2
🕵️♂️
sleuth
B2
💂♀️
guard
C2
👨⚖️
judge
D2
👩⚖️
judge
A3
🕵️♂️
sleuth
B3
👮♀️
cop
C3
👮♀️
cop
D3
👮♀️
cop
A4
💂♂️
guard
B4
👷♀️
builder
C4
👨⚕️
doctor
D4
👩🌾
farmer
A5
💂♂️
guard
B5
👷♂️
builder
C5
👨⚕️
doctor
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 Sep 21, 2026 — a Easy solved in 15 steps
Today's Clues by Sam puzzle is rated Easy and resolves with 15 criminals on a 20-cell, 4-column × 5-row grid. The criminals are Anna (A1), Bruce (B1), Carol (C1), Daniel (D1), Ghani (C2), Hope (D2), Janet (B3), Lisa (C3), Maria (D3), Olof (A4), Tina (D4), Vince (A5), Wally (B5), Xavi (C5) and Zara (D5); the remaining 5 suspects are innocent.
The deduction chain, in plain English
01.B1 · Bruce → CRIMINAL, B5 · Wally → CRIMINAL
Ryan’s clue says exactly 2 corner people have a criminal directly to their right. Two such cases are still needed for this clue, and the only direct-right neighbors that can still supply those corner cases are B1 Bruce and B5 Wally. Since those are the only people who can fill the two required spots, both of them have to be criminals. So Bruce and Wally must be criminal.
02.C3 · Lisa → CRIMINAL
Wally’s clue says the people who are neighbors of both Maria and Quita contain exactly one innocent. That shared group is just Lisa and Ryan, and Ryan is already known to be innocent. Since the one innocent in that shared group is already accounted for, Lisa cannot also be innocent. So Lisa must be criminal.
03.B2 · Freya → INNOCENT
Lisa’s clue says Freya is one of the exactly 2 innocents in column B. That directly identifies Freya as innocent. So Freya must be innocent.
04.B3 · Janet → CRIMINAL
Freya’s clue says the people above Quita contain exactly one innocent. Above Quita, there is already one known innocent there: Freya. The only person above Quita whose identity was still unknown is Janet, so Janet cannot also be innocent. So Janet must be criminal.
05.B4 · Quita → INNOCENT
Lisa’s clue says Freya is one of exactly 2 innocents in column B. In column B, Bruce, Janet, and Wally are criminals, and Freya is already the one known innocent, leaving Quita as the only other person there. So Quita must be innocent.
06.A4 · Olof → CRIMINAL, D4 · Tina → CRIMINAL
Janet’s clue says row 4 has exactly 2 innocents. Row 4 already has those 2 innocents identified: Quita and Ryan. The only people left in that row are Olof and Tina, so neither of them can also be innocent. So Olof and Tina must be criminal.
07.C1 · Carol → CRIMINAL
Olof's clue says that among Freya's neighbors, exactly 2 criminals are to the right of Anna. In that group, Bruce is already known to be a criminal, and the only other person there is Carol. So the count of 2 can only be reached if Carol is also a criminal. That makes Carol criminal.
08.C5 · Xavi → CRIMINAL, C2 · Ghani → CRIMINAL
Carol’s clue says there is exactly one innocent in column C. Column C already has that one innocent, Ryan, and the only people in that column not yet identified are Ghani and Xavi. Since the single innocent in column C is already accounted for, neither of those remaining people can be innocent. So Xavi and Ghani must be criminal.
09.A5 · Vince → CRIMINAL
Freya’s clue fixes her neighborhood very tightly: it contains exactly 6 criminals, and exactly 2 of those are to the right of Anna, namely Bruce and Carol. Ghani’s clue also requires every column, including column A, to have at least 3 criminals. If Vince were innocent, then Anna, Eric, Ivan, Daniel, Hope, Maria, and Zara would have to make all of those facts true at the same time, but they cannot. That makes the innocent option for Vince impossible. So Vince must be criminal.
10.D3 · Maria → CRIMINAL
Column D contains Daniel, Hope, Maria, Tina, and Zara, and Tina is already a known criminal. Ghani’s clue says every column must have at least 3 criminals, while Vince’s clue says all criminals in column D have to be connected as one orthogonal block. If Maria were innocent, the remaining people in column D would have to supply enough criminals to reach that minimum of 3 without breaking the required single connected block with Tina. That combination cannot be made to fit. So Maria at D3 must be criminal.
11.D2 · Hope → CRIMINAL
Maria’s clue says Lisa’s neighbors contain exactly 3 innocent people. Lisa’s neighbors already include 3 known innocents, and the only neighbor there whose identity is still unknown is Hope. Since all 3 innocent spots are already used, Hope cannot be innocent. So Hope must be criminal.
12.A2 · Eric → INNOCENT
Hope’s clue says rows 2 and 4 have the same number of criminals. Row 4 already has 2 criminals, and row 2 also already has 2 known criminals. Since Eric is the only unknown person in row 2, making Eric a criminal would give row 2 more criminals than row 4. So Eric must be innocent.
13.A3 · Ivan → INNOCENT
Eric’s clue says the people below him contain exactly one innocent. Among those people, there are currently no known innocents, and the only person there whose identity is still unknown is Ivan. Since that group still needs exactly one innocent, Ivan has to be that innocent. So Ivan must be innocent.
14.A1 · Anna → CRIMINAL
Freya's neighbors must include exactly 6 criminals, and exactly 2 of those criminals are to the right of Anna: Bruce and Carol. That means the other 4 criminals among Freya's neighbors must be people who are not to the right of Anna. In that not-to-the-right group, Ghani, Janet, and Lisa are already known criminals, while Eric and Ivan are innocent, so one more criminal is still needed there. The only unknown person left in that group is Anna, so Anna must be criminal.
15.D5 · Zara → CRIMINAL, D1 · Daniel → CRIMINAL
Ivan’s clue says that exactly one row has exactly 3 criminals. Row 2 already has exactly 3 criminals, since Eric and Freya are innocent while Ghani and Hope are criminals. That means no other row can end with exactly 3 criminals. Row 1 already has 3 known criminals, so Daniel cannot be innocent or that row would also have exactly 3 criminals; Daniel must be criminal. Row 5 is the same: Vince, Wally, and Xavi are already criminals, so Zara cannot be innocent or row 5 would also have exactly 3 criminals. So Daniel and Zara must be criminal.