Clues by Sam Sep 30, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
A1
👩⚖️
judge
B1
👩⚖️
judge
C1
👷♀️
builder
D1
💂♀️
guard
A2
👩🔧
mech
B2
👨🔧
mech
C2
💂♀️
guard
D2
👩⚕️
doctor
A3
👨🔧
mech
B3
👨💼
clerk
C3
👩🎤
singer
D3
👨💼
clerk
A4
👨🎨
painter
B4
👨🎨
painter
C4
👷♂️
builder
D4
👷♂️
builder
A5
👨🎨
painter
B5
👩⚕️
doctor
C5
👨🎤
singer
D5
👩⚕️
doctor
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 30, 2026 — a Medium solved in 18 steps
Today's Clues by Sam puzzle is rated Medium and resolves with 12 criminals on a 20-cell, 4-column × 5-row grid. The criminals are Betty (A1), Cheryl (B1), Gary (B2), Kyle (A3), Megan (C3), Nick (D3), Ryan (B4), Steve (C4), Tyler (D4), Vince (A5), Xavi (C5) and Zoe (D5); the remaining 8 suspects are innocent.
The deduction chain, in plain English
01.B4 · Ryan → CRIMINAL
Wanda’s clue says Ryan is one of two or more criminals below Cheryl. That directly includes Ryan among the criminals in the people below Cheryl, and also says he is not the only criminal there. So Ryan must be criminal.
02.A5 · Vince → CRIMINAL
Ryan’s clue says that the two innocents below Betty are both neighbors of Logan. Below Betty, the only person who is not one of Logan’s neighbors is Vince. Since every innocent below Betty has to be in Logan’s neighbor group, someone outside that group cannot be innocent. So Vince must be criminal.
03.A4 · Paul → INNOCENT
Column A has exactly 2 innocents in total, and exactly 1 of those column A innocents is a neighbor of Wanda. Among the people in column A who are neighbors of Wanda, Vince is already a criminal, so that group still needs 1 innocent. The only unknown person left in that group is Paul. So Paul must be innocent.
04.A1 · Betty → CRIMINAL
Column A has exactly 2 innocents in total. Paul is already one innocent there, and among the people in column A, exactly 1 innocent is Wanda's neighbor; in that shared group, Paul is the only innocent shown. If Betty were innocent, then the 2 innocents in column A would be Betty and Paul. That would leave Freya and Kyle unable to be the second innocent in column A, so Freya and Kyle would both have to be criminals. That clashes with the clue pattern for this step, so Betty cannot be innocent. So Betty must be criminal.
05.C1 · Donna → INNOCENT
Betty’s clue says the two innocents in row 1 must be connected. If Donna were criminal, then with Betty already criminal, the two innocents in row 1 would have to be Cheryl and Eve. But Cheryl and Eve are not connected, because Donna would be between them and criminal. So that assumption fails, and Donna at C1 must be innocent.
06.C5 · Xavi → CRIMINAL, D5 · Zoe → CRIMINAL
Row 1 and row 5 each currently have 1 known innocent. Paul’s clue says row 1 must contain more innocents than row 5, and the only remaining people involved here in row 1 are Cheryl and Eve. If Xavi and Zoe were both innocent, row 5 would rise above its current innocent count while row 1 could only rely on Cheryl and Eve to satisfy that same clue, and that cannot be made to fit. So Xavi and Zoe cannot be innocent. That makes Xavi and Zoe criminals.
07.B2 · Gary → CRIMINAL
Zoe’s clue says that Gary is one of the 3 criminals in column B. Since the clue directly includes Gary among those criminals, his identity is fixed by the clue itself. So Gary must be criminal.
08.D3 · Nick → CRIMINAL
Gary’s clue says that the only innocent in row 3 is one of Gary’s neighbors. In row 3, the only person who is not one of Gary’s neighbors is Nick at D3. Since every innocent in row 3 has to be inside Gary’s neighboring group, Nick cannot be innocent. So Nick must be criminal.
09.D4 · Tyler → CRIMINAL
Donna’s clue says that all criminals in column D have to be connected as one continuous block. In column D, Nick at D3 is already a criminal and Zoe at D5 is already a criminal. The only person between D3 and D5 in that column is Tyler at D4, so that spot has to be criminal to keep the criminals in column D connected. So Tyler must be criminal.
10.C4 · Steve → CRIMINAL
Xavi’s clue says row 4 has an odd number of criminals. In row 4, Ryan and Tyler are already known criminals, so that is 2 criminals so far, and Steve is the only person there whose identity is still unknown. To make the total in row 4 odd, Steve has to be added as a criminal. So Steve must be criminal.
11.C3 · Megan → CRIMINAL
If Megan were innocent, then Gary's clue would make her the only innocent in row 3. That would leave Kyle and Logan as the other people in row 3, so they would both have to be criminals. But Steve's clue says Paul and Zoe have the same number of criminal neighbors. Zoe already has 3 criminal neighbors, while Paul already has 2 criminal neighbors among Ryan, Vince, and Wanda, so making Kyle and Logan both criminals would give Paul 4 criminal neighbors instead of 3. That clashes with Steve's clue, so Megan cannot be innocent. So Megan must be criminal.
12.C2 · Helen → INNOCENT
Nick’s clue is about the people who are both below Donna and neighbors of Logan. That shared group is Helen, Megan, and Steve. The clue says an odd number of those people are innocents. Megan and Steve are already known criminals, so they do not contribute to that innocent count. For the number of innocents in this group to be odd, Helen has to be the one innocent there. So Helen must be innocent.
13.A2 · Freya → INNOCENT
Helen’s clue says exactly one judge has a criminal directly below them. Cheryl is a judge, and Gary directly below Cheryl is criminal, so that one qualifying judge is already accounted for. Betty is the other judge, with Freya directly below her, so Freya cannot be criminal or Betty would also qualify and the total would become two. So Freya must be innocent.
14.A3 · Kyle → CRIMINAL
Ryan’s clue says the two innocents below Betty are Logan’s neighbors. Below Betty, Freya and Paul are already known innocents, and Kyle is the only person there whose identity is still unknown. Freya and Paul are already in the overlap of “below Betty” and “Logan’s neighbors,” so the clue’s two innocents below Betty are already fully accounted for. That leaves Kyle at A3 as criminal.
15.B3 · Logan → INNOCENT
Gary says the only innocent in row 3 is his neighbor, so the innocent person in row 3 has to be among the people shared by row 3 and Gary's neighbors. In that shared group, Kyle and Megan are already criminal, and everyone else in row 3 outside that group is already criminal too. Row 3 still needs one innocent, and the only unknown person left in the shared group is Logan. So Logan must be innocent.
16.B1 · Cheryl → CRIMINAL
Zoe’s clue says Gary is one of exactly 3 criminals in column B. In column B, Gary and Ryan are already criminals, while Logan and Wanda are innocent, so the only person left there is Cheryl. To reach the required total of 3 criminals in that column, Cheryl has to be the third one. So Cheryl must be criminal.
17.D1 · Eve → INNOCENT
Betty’s clue says the two innocents in row 1 are connected. In row 1, Betty and Cheryl are criminals, Donna is already innocent, and Eve is the only person there not yet identified. Since row 1 must contain exactly two innocents, the second innocent has to be Eve, next to Donna, so the pair of innocents can be connected. So Eve must be innocent.
18.D2 · Janet → INNOCENT
Kyle’s clue says row 2 has more innocents than any other row. Row 2 currently has 2 known innocents, Freya and Helen, and Janet is the only unknown person left there. But row 1 already has 2 innocents, so row 2 cannot stay at only 2 innocents if it is to have more innocents than every other row. That makes Janet innocent.