Clues by Sam Oct 14, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
A1
👮♀️
cop
B1
👩🎨
painter
C1
👩🏫
teacher
D1
👨✈️
pilot
A2
👩🏫
teacher
B2
👨🎨
painter
C2
👩✈️
pilot
D2
👨🎨
painter
A3
👨🏫
teacher
B3
🧛♂️
vampire
C3
🕵️♂️
sleuth
D3
👨🔧
mech
A4
👩🔧
mech
B4
👩🎤
singer
C4
👩🔧
mech
D4
👩🎤
singer
A5
👮♂️
cop
B5
👨🎤
singer
C5
👨💼
clerk
D5
👩💼
clerk
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 Oct 14, 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 Anna (A1), Bonnie (B1), Cheryl (C1), Denis (D1), Gus (B2), Luigi (B3), Martin (C3), Quita (A4), Samira (B4), Uma (D4), Wally (B5) and Xavi (C5); the remaining 8 suspects are innocent.
The deduction chain, in plain English
01.C3 · Martin → CRIMINAL
Igor’s clue says that Martin is a criminal. Since everyone tells the truth, that statement fixes Martin’s identity directly. So Martin must be criminal.
02.D4 · Uma → CRIMINAL
Martin’s clue says the two innocents above Zoe are connected. Among the people above Zoe, Igor is already known to be one of those innocents, so the other innocent has to be orthogonally next to Igor. In that column, that only allows Denis or Pip. Uma is not next to Igor there, so she cannot be the other innocent in the connected pair. So Uma must be criminal.
03.D5 · Zoe → INNOCENT
Martin’s clue says the innocents above Zoe are exactly two people and those two must be connected. Above Zoe, Igor is already innocent, Uma is already criminal, and Denis and Pip are the only unknowns there. Uma’s clue says column C is the only column with exactly 2 innocents, so column D cannot also end up with exactly 2 innocents. If Zoe were criminal, the people above her would still have to meet Martin’s “both innocents above Zoe are connected” requirement, but making that fit while also keeping column D from having exactly 2 innocents is impossible. So Zoe must be innocent.
04.A5 · Vince → INNOCENT
Uma’s clue fixes column C as the only column with exactly 2 innocents, and Zoe’s clue fixes the people above Vince as a group with exactly 2 criminals, with exactly 1 of those criminals being John’s neighbor among Emma and Quita. If Vince were criminal, the remaining people named in these clues would have to satisfy both of those restrictions at the same time, but they cannot be made to do that. So Vince cannot be criminal. That makes Vince innocent.
05.C4 · Tina → INNOCENT
Vince’s clue says there is exactly one innocent to the right of Samira. In that group, there are currently no known innocents, and the only person there whose identity is still unknown is Tina. So the one innocent that still has to appear to the right of Samira must be Tina. That makes Tina innocent.
06.C5 · Xavi → CRIMINAL
Tina’s clue says there is exactly one innocent below Hazel. Below Hazel, there is already one known innocent there: Tina. The only person below Hazel whose identity was still unknown is Xavi, so Xavi cannot also be innocent. So Xavi must be criminal.
07.A1 · Anna → CRIMINAL, A3 · John → INNOCENT
Above Vince there must be exactly 2 criminals, and exactly 1 of those criminals is one of John’s neighbors, namely Emma or Quita. Below Anna there must be an odd number of criminals, and the only people there whose status is not yet known are Emma, John, and Quita. If Anna were innocent and John were criminal, then Emma and Quita would have to make both clues true at the same time, but they cannot. That opposite assignment therefore clashes with the two clues. So Anna must be criminal and John must be innocent.
08.C1 · Cheryl → CRIMINAL
Above Zoe, the two innocents must be connected. In that group, Igor is already innocent and Uma is already criminal, so the only unknowns involved there are Denis and Pip. Anna’s clue says an odd number of Igor’s edge neighbors are innocent, and those edge neighbors are Cheryl, Denis, and Pip. If Cheryl were innocent, then Denis and Pip would also have to fit both that odd-count requirement and the connected-innocents requirement above Zoe, but they cannot do that at the same time. So Cheryl must be criminal.
09.C2 · Hazel → INNOCENT
Uma’s clue says column C is the only column with exactly 2 innocents, so column C itself must contain exactly 2 innocents. In column C, Cheryl, Martin, and Xavi are criminals, Tina is already innocent, and Hazel is the only person there whose identity is not yet known. That means Hazel has to be the second innocent in column C. So Hazel must be innocent.
10.A2 · Emma → INNOCENT
Hazel's clue says the people above Quita contain exactly 2 innocents. Among those people, 1 innocent is already known, and the only person there whose status is still unknown is Emma. So the group still needs exactly 1 more innocent, and Emma has to be that innocent. That makes Emma innocent.
11.A4 · Quita → CRIMINAL
Above Vince there are exactly two criminals in total. Among the people above Vince who are also John's neighbors, the only ones are Emma and Quita, and the clue says exactly one of those criminals above Vince is John's neighbor. Emma is innocent, so that needed criminal neighbor above Vince cannot be Emma. The only unknown person left in that group is Quita, so Quita must be criminal.
12.B2 · Gus → CRIMINAL
John’s clue says every row has at least one criminal. In row 2, Emma, Hazel, and Igor are already known innocents, and Gus is the only person there whose identity was not yet fixed. That means row 2 already has as many innocents as it can have, so Gus cannot also be innocent because then row 2 would have no criminal at all. So Gus must be criminal.
13.B1 · Bonnie → CRIMINAL
Cheryl’s clue says exactly one corner person has exactly one criminal neighbor. Denis is a corner and already has exactly one criminal neighbor, with no unknown neighbors that could change that. Zoe is not that person, because she already has two criminal neighbors. Anna currently has one known criminal neighbor, but Bonnie is still unknown. If Bonnie were innocent, Anna would also end with exactly one criminal neighbor, creating a second corner person with exactly one criminal neighbor alongside Denis. So Bonnie must be criminal.
14.B5 · Wally → CRIMINAL
Bonnie’s clue says there is only one row with exactly one criminal. Row 2 already fits that exactly, since Gus is the only criminal there and Emma, Hazel, and Igor are innocent. Row 5 currently has one known criminal, Xavi, and Wally is the only person in that row whose identity is not fixed yet. So row 5 cannot be left with exactly one criminal as well, which means Wally cannot be innocent. That makes Wally criminal.
15.B4 · Samira → CRIMINAL
If Samira were innocent, then row 4 would have 2 innocents, while row 3 currently has only 1 innocent. Wally’s clue says row 3 has more innocents than row 4, so row 3 could not gain only one innocent from its two unknown people; Luigi would have to be criminal. But that clashes with the other clue that column C is the only column with exactly 2 innocents. So the assumption fails, and Samira at B4 must be criminal.
16.B3 · Luigi → CRIMINAL
If Luigi were innocent, then there would be 10 known criminals on the board and only Denis and Pip left unknown. Samira says there are 12 criminals in total, so Denis and Pip would both have to be criminals to reach 12. But Uma says column C is the only column with exactly 2 innocents. Column D already has 2 known innocents, Igor and Zoe, so it cannot finish with exactly 2 innocents as well. That means at least one of Denis or Pip must be innocent, which clashes with needing both of them to be criminals. So Luigi must be criminal.
17.D3 · Pip → INNOCENT
Wally’s clue says row 3 has more innocents than row 4. Row 4 already has 1 innocent, and row 3 currently also has 1 known innocent. Since Pip is the only unknown person in row 3, row 3 can have more innocents than row 4 only if Pip is innocent. So Pip must be innocent.
18.D1 · Denis → CRIMINAL
Martin’s clue says that both innocents above Zoe are connected. Above Zoe, the people are Denis, Igor, Pip, and Uma, and Igor and Pip are already the two known innocents there while Uma is criminal. That means the two innocents above Zoe are Igor and Pip, so there is no room for Denis to also be innocent. So Denis must be criminal.