Clues by Sam Sep 24, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
A1
👩✈️
pilot
B1
👨🔧
mech
C1
👩⚖️
judge
D1
👨💼
clerk
A2
👩⚕️
doctor
B2
👨✈️
pilot
C2
👨⚖️
judge
D2
👨⚖️
judge
A3
👨🏫
teacher
B3
👩✈️
pilot
C3
👩🌾
farmer
D3
🕵️♀️
sleuth
A4
👩🏫
teacher
B4
👩💼
clerk
C4
👨🌾
farmer
D4
🕵️♂️
sleuth
A5
👨🏫
teacher
B5
👩🔧
mech
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 — 12 criminals.
Clues by Sam answer for Sep 24, 2026 — a Tricky solved in 17 steps
Today's Clues by Sam puzzle is rated Tricky and resolves with 12 criminals on a 20-cell, 4-column × 5-row grid. The criminals are Erwin (B1), Gus (D1), Helen (A2), Igor (B2), Jose (C2), Kevin (D2), Mary (B3), Nancy (C3), Quita (B4), Tom (A5), Xavi (C5) and Zoe (D5); the remaining 8 suspects are innocent.
The deduction chain, in plain English
01.A5 · Tom → CRIMINAL
Vera’s clue says Paula has exactly 3 criminal neighbors, and exactly 1 of those criminal neighbors is in row 5. Among Paula’s neighbors in row 5, the only people there are Tom and Vera, and Vera is already innocent. So that row-5 part of the clue still needs 1 criminal, and Tom is the only person who can fill it. That makes Tom criminal.
02.C2 · Jose → CRIMINAL
Tom’s clue says Jose is one of Olga’s 3 criminal neighbors. That directly places Jose among the criminal people in Olga’s neighboring group. So Jose must be criminal.
03.B4 · Quita → CRIMINAL
Paula's neighbors contain exactly 2 innocents in total. Among those neighbors, the row 3 neighbors, Logan and Mary, contain exactly 1 innocent. The only remaining neighbor outside that row 3 pair is Quita, because Tom is already criminal and Vera is already innocent. So the row 3 pair plus Vera already account for the 2 innocents among Paula's neighbors, which means Quita cannot be innocent. That makes Quita criminal.
04.C3 · Nancy → CRIMINAL
Among Olga's neighbors, exactly 3 are criminal. Among the Olga-neighbors who also neighbor Nancy, exactly 2 are criminal. The only Olga-neighbor who is not in that smaller shared group is Nancy herself. So the difference between those two counts has to come from Nancy. That makes Nancy criminal.
05.A2 · Helen → CRIMINAL
Paula’s clue leaves exactly 1 criminal among A3 Logan and B3 Mary. Nancy’s clue says Igor’s neighbors not in row 1 contain exactly 4 criminals, and that group is A2 Helen, C2 Jose, A3 Logan, B3 Mary, and C3 Nancy. Jose and Nancy are already criminals, so with exactly 1 more criminal among Logan and Mary, those four people account for only 3 of the 4 criminals required in Igor’s non-row-1 neighbors. The only person in that group not yet accounted for is Helen, so she has to be the remaining criminal. So Helen must be criminal.
06.D1 · Gus → CRIMINAL
Among the people in row 1, exactly 2 are criminals. Among the row 1 people who are also neighboring Igor, exactly 1 is a criminal, and those are Barb, Erwin, and Freya. That leaves the only row 1 person outside that smaller group, Gus, to supply the other criminal in row 1. So Gus must be criminal.
07.C4 · Ryan → INNOCENT
Olga’s neighbors contain exactly 3 criminals, and Jose and Nancy are already 2 of them. Gus’s clue says exactly 1 edge criminal is Olga’s neighbor, so among Olga’s edge-neighbors, Kevin and Shaun account for the remaining criminal slot in Olga’s neighborhood. That leaves the only other person in Olga’s neighbor group, Ryan, unable to be a criminal. So Ryan must be innocent.
08.C1 · Freya → INNOCENT
Ryan’s clue says there is exactly one innocent to the left of Freya, and those people are Barb and Erwin. Nancy’s clue fixes the row 1 neighbors of Igor as having exactly two innocents, and that row 1 group is Barb, Erwin, and Freya. So after the one innocent among Barb and Erwin is accounted for, the remaining person in that row 1 group has to provide the second innocent. That makes Freya innocent.
09.B2 · Igor → CRIMINAL
Helen’s neighbors are Barb, Erwin, Igor, Logan, and Mary, and Freya’s clue says this group contains an odd number of criminals. Nancy’s clue fixes the matching group of Barb, Erwin, Logan, and Mary at exactly 2 criminals. That means those four contribute an even number of criminals among Helen’s neighbors, and Igor is the only person in Helen’s neighbor set outside that four-person group. To make Helen’s total odd, Igor must be criminal.
10.D4 · Shaun → INNOCENT
Igor's clue says directly that Shaun is innocent. That alone fixes Shaun's identity with no extra deduction needed. So Shaun must be innocent.
11.D2 · Kevin → CRIMINAL
Tom’s clue says Jose is one of Olga’s exactly 3 criminal neighbors. Among Olga’s neighbors, Jose and Nancy are already criminal, while Ryan and Shaun are innocent. That leaves Kevin as the only neighbor not yet identified, and Olga still needs a third criminal neighbor. So Kevin at D2 must be criminal.
12.A4 · Paula → INNOCENT
If Paula were criminal, then row 4 would have 2 criminals. Kevin's clue says row 1 has more criminals than row 4, so row 1 would need more than 2 criminals. Since Gus is already the one known criminal in row 1, that means Barb and Erwin would both have to be criminals too. But Nancy's clue says exactly 1 of Igor's neighboring criminals is in row 1. Barb and Erwin are both in row 1 and both neighbor Igor, while Freya is innocent, so having both Barb and Erwin criminal would put 2 neighboring criminals from row 1 there, not 1. That contradiction means Paula cannot be criminal. So Paula must be innocent.
13.B1 · Erwin → CRIMINAL
Nancy’s clue fixes the criminal total among Nancy’s neighbors, and that leaves exactly one criminal to be accounted for by Mary and Olga. Jose’s clue fixes Jose’s neighbors at exactly two innocents, so among Jose’s eight neighbors there must be six criminals. Comparing those two groups, all of the criminal candidates from the smaller group are already included in Jose’s neighbor group except for one extra person: Erwin. That extra criminal needed in Jose’s neighbor count therefore has to be Erwin. So Erwin must be criminal.
14.A1 · Barb → INNOCENT
Among Igor’s neighbors, exactly one criminal is in row 1. The row 1 neighbors of Igor are Barb, Erwin, and Freya, and Erwin is already the one known criminal there. That means the remaining unknown person in that row 1 neighbor group cannot also be a criminal. So Barb must be innocent.
15.C5 · Xavi → CRIMINAL, A3 · Logan → INNOCENT, B3 · Mary → CRIMINAL
The key facts here are that there are exactly 7 criminals on the edge, exactly 1 of those edge criminals is Olga's neighbor, and exactly one column has exactly 4 criminals. If you try the opposite statuses for the targets, with Xavi innocent, Logan criminal, and Mary innocent, then the remaining people involved in these clues, Olga and Zoe, would have to satisfy all of those requirements at the same time, but they cannot. So that opposite assignment fails against these clues. Therefore Xavi must be criminal, Logan must be innocent, and Mary must be criminal.
16.D3 · Olga → INNOCENT
Nancy’s neighbors contain exactly 5 criminals in total, and exactly 2 of those criminal neighbors also neighbor Olga. The people among Nancy’s neighbors who also neighbor Olga are Jose, Kevin, Ryan, and Shaun, and only Jose and Kevin are criminals, so those 2 criminal spots are already filled. That leaves the people in Nancy’s neighbor set who do not neighbor Olga: Igor, Mary, Olga, and Quita. Igor, Mary, and Quita are already the 3 criminals required in that remaining group, so Olga cannot also be a criminal. So Olga must be innocent.
17.D5 · Zoe → CRIMINAL
Gus's clue says there are exactly 7 criminals on the edge, and exactly 1 of those edge criminals is a neighbor of Olga. That means the edge must contain exactly 6 criminals who are not neighbors of Olga. Among the edge people who are not neighbors of Olga, there are already 5 known criminals: Erwin, Gus, Helen, Tom, and Xavi. Those non-neighbor edge spots still need 1 more criminal, and the only unknown person left in that group is Zoe. So Zoe must be criminal.