Clues by Sam Sep 26, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
A1
👨🌾
farmer
B1
👩🌾
farmer
C1
👨💼
clerk
D1
👩🌾
farmer
A2
👨🌾
farmer
B2
👨🌾
farmer
C2
👩🌾
farmer
D2
👨🌾
farmer
A3
👨🌾
farmer
B3
👩🌾
farmer
C3
👩🌾
farmer
D3
👨🌾
farmer
A4
👩🌾
farmer
B4
👨🌾
farmer
C4
👩🌾
farmer
D4
👨🌾
farmer
A5
👩🌾
farmer
B5
👩🌾
farmer
C5
👨🌾
farmer
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 — 5 criminals.
Clues by Sam answer for Sep 26, 2026 — a Hard solved in 17 steps
Today's Clues by Sam puzzle is rated Hard and resolves with 5 criminals on a 20-cell, 4-column × 5-row grid. The criminals are Danny (C1), Jerry (A3), Nancy (A4), Vera (A5) and Wanda (B5); the remaining 15 suspects are innocent.
The deduction chain, in plain English
01.B2 · Gus → INNOCENT, B3 · Karen → INNOCENT
Sarah’s clue is about the people strictly between Bonnie and Oscar, which are Gus and Karen. It says there are more innocents than criminals there, so in that group of two there must be at least 2 innocents and at most 0 criminals. There are no known criminals there already, and the only people in that group whose status is not fixed are Gus and Karen, so neither of them can be criminal. So Gus and Karen must be innocent.
02.C3 · Lisa → INNOCENT
Assume Lisa were criminal. Hope must have exactly 7 innocent neighbors, and among Hope's neighbors only Gus and Karen are already known innocent, so Bonnie, Danny, Eve, Isaac, and Martin would all have to be innocent to bring that neighbor total up to 7. That would make the innocents in row 3 be Karen and Martin, with Lisa in between them as a criminal. But all innocents in row 3 have to be connected, and Karen and Martin are not connected if Lisa is criminal. So Lisa at C3 must be innocent.
03.D2 · Isaac → INNOCENT
If Isaac were criminal, then Hope’s neighbor clue would have to get its 7 innocents from the other five unknown neighbors around Hope. Since Gus, Karen, and Lisa are already innocent, Bonnie and Danny would both have to be innocent, and then Eve and Martin would also have to be innocent, to bring Hope’s neighboring innocents up to 7. That would put Eve and Martin both as innocents in column D while Isaac, between them, was criminal. But Lisa’s clue says all innocents in column D are connected, and Eve at D1 and Martin at D3 would be split apart by Isaac at D2. So Isaac at D2 must be innocent.
04.D3 · Martin → INNOCENT
Column D has to end up with more innocents than any other column, and column B and column C already each have 2 known innocents. So column D cannot stop at Isaac alone; it needs additional innocents in D. At the same time, all innocents in column D must be connected as one orthogonally connected block. If Martin at D3 were criminal, that would break the column between Isaac at D2 and the lower part of column D, and then the remaining unknown people in these columns could not satisfy both requirements together. So Martin at D3 must be innocent.
05.D4 · Tom → INNOCENT
Hope’s clue says her neighbors contain exactly 7 innocents. Among those neighbors, 5 are already known innocent, so two of Bonnie, Danny, and Eve must also be innocent. That means column D, which already has Isaac and Martin as innocents, must get at least one more innocent from Eve, and it also has to end up with more innocents than any other column while keeping the innocents in column D as one connected block. If Tom were criminal, the remaining unknown people named here could not satisfy all of those requirements at the same time. So Tom cannot be criminal. That makes Tom innocent.
06.C2 · Hope → INNOCENT
Tom’s clue says that Hope is one of Gus’s six innocent neighbors. That identifies Hope directly as part of that innocent group. So Hope must be innocent.
07.D1 · Eve → INNOCENT
Hope has exactly 7 innocent neighbors, and among Hope's 8 neighbors there are already 5 known innocents. That means the only possible criminal among Hope's neighbors must be one of the 3 unknown neighbors: Bonnie, Danny, or Eve. The step then narrows that single criminal spot to Bonnie or Danny, so Eve cannot be the criminal in Hope's neighbor group. That makes Eve at D1 innocent.
08.A4 · Nancy → CRIMINAL
Martin’s clue says there are exactly 2 innocents above Vera. The people above Vera are Alex, Floyd, Jerry, and Nancy. Those 2 innocents must be Alex, Floyd, and Jerry rather than Nancy, so Nancy cannot be one of the 2 innocents in that group. So Nancy must be criminal.
09.A2 · Floyd → INNOCENT, A5 · Vera → CRIMINAL
Martin’s clue says the people above Vera contain exactly 2 innocents, and right now those four people are Alex, Floyd, Jerry, and Nancy, with Nancy already known to be a criminal. Hope’s clue says all innocents in column A must be connected, and column A is Alex, Floyd, Jerry, Nancy, and Vera. Now test the opposite pair: Floyd criminal and Vera innocent. Then Alex and Jerry would still have to supply the 2 innocents above Vera, because Nancy is criminal and Martin’s clue requires exactly 2 innocents above Vera. But that would put the innocents in column A above Nancy while Vera is also innocent below Nancy, splitting the innocents in column A into separate groups instead of one connected block. So Floyd must be innocent and Vera must be criminal.
10.D5 · Zara → INNOCENT
If Zara were criminal, then column D would already be fixed at exactly four innocents: Eve, Isaac, Martin, and Tom. Hope’s clue says her neighbors contain exactly seven innocents, and with six already known there, Bonnie has to be innocent, which makes Danny criminal. Nancy’s clue says an odd number of the row 5 neighbors of Oscar are innocent; in that group Vera is criminal, so Wanda must be innocent and Xavi criminal. That would give column C four innocents as well, because Hope, Lisa, and Sarah are already innocent and Bonnie being innocent forces Danny criminal rather than changing column C, while column D stays at four. But column D is supposed to have more innocents than any other column, not just tie one. So Zara cannot be criminal. That makes Zara innocent.
11.B4 · Oscar → INNOCENT
Nancy’s clue says the people who are both in row 5 and neighbors of Oscar contain an odd number of innocents. That group is exactly Vera, Wanda, and Xavi, so Wanda and Xavi are constrained by that odd-count requirement. Vera’s clue says Sarah’s neighbors contain an odd number of innocents. Sarah’s neighbors already include 5 known innocents, and the only unknown members there are Oscar, Wanda, and Xavi. If Oscar were criminal, then only Wanda and Xavi would be left to make Sarah’s neighbor total stay odd, while also meeting Nancy’s odd-count condition for the row-5 neighbors of Oscar. Those two clues cannot both be satisfied that way. So Oscar cannot be criminal. So Oscar must be innocent.
12.B5 · Wanda → CRIMINAL
Gus’s neighbors must include exactly 6 innocents, and among those neighbors there are already 4 known innocents: Floyd, Hope, Karen, and Lisa. Oscar’s clue also says Gus’s neighbors and Vera’s neighbors have the same number of criminal neighbors, but right now Gus’s neighbors have 0 known criminals while Vera’s neighbors already have 1, namely Nancy. If Wanda were innocent, then Vera’s neighbors would stay at 1 criminal, so Gus’s side would have to match that while Alex, Bonnie, Danny, and Jerry also still have to supply the remaining innocents needed for Gus’s total of 6. That combination cannot satisfy both clues at once. So Wanda must be criminal.
13.C5 · Xavi → INNOCENT
Nancy’s clue says an odd number of the people who are both in row 5 and neighboring Oscar are innocent. That shared group is exactly Vera, Wanda, and Xavi. Vera and Wanda are already criminals, so the only person in that group who can make the number of innocents odd is Xavi. So Xavi must be innocent.
14.C1 · Danny → CRIMINAL
Isaac’s clue says column D has more innocents than any other column. Column D already has all five of its people identified as innocent, so it is already at the maximum of 5 innocents. Column C already has 4 known innocents, and Danny is the only person there not yet identified. If Danny were innocent, column C would also have 5 innocents, tying column D, and that is not allowed by the clue. So Danny must be criminal.
15.B1 · Bonnie → INNOCENT
Gus says Hope has exactly 7 innocent neighbors. Around Hope, 6 neighbors are already known to be innocent, and the only neighbor there who is still unknown is Bonnie. That means the one remaining innocent neighbor has to be Bonnie. So Bonnie must be innocent.
16.A3 · Jerry → CRIMINAL
Wanda’s clue says there are no innocents among the people who are both above Vera and neighboring Oscar. That shared group is just Jerry and Nancy, and it already contains 0 known innocents because Nancy is a criminal. So the only unknown person left in that group, Jerry, cannot be innocent. That makes Jerry criminal.
17.A1 · Alex → INNOCENT
Tom’s clue says that Hope is one of Gus’s exactly 6 innocent neighbors. Among Gus’s neighbors, Bonnie, Floyd, Hope, Karen, and Lisa are already innocent, while Danny and Jerry are criminal, and the only neighbor not yet identified is Alex. That means the sixth innocent neighbor has to be Alex. So Alex must be innocent.