Clues by Sam Oct 28, 2026 Answer – Full Solution Explained
A1
👩🎤
singer
B1
👷♀️
builder
C1
👨⚖️
judge
D1
👨🔧
mech
A2
👩💻
coder
B2
👷♂️
builder
C2
👨⚖️
judge
D2
👩🔧
mech
A3
👨💻
coder
B3
👨💻
coder
C3
👻
ghost
D3
👨🎤
singer
A4
👮♀️
cop
B4
👩🍳
cook
C4
👩🌾
farmer
D4
👨🌾
farmer
A5
👩🍳
cook
B5
👨🍳
cook
C5
👮♀️
cop
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 Oct 28, 2026 — a Tricky solved in 17 steps
Today's Clues by Sam puzzle is rated Tricky and resolves with 15 criminals on a 20-cell, 4-column × 5-row grid. The criminals are Anna (A1), David (D1), Ellie (A2), Ghani (B2), Jason (C2), Karen (D2), Logan (A3), Martin (B3), Olsi (D3), Penny (A4), Quita (B4), Ruth (C4), Vera (A5), Wally (B5) and Yasmin (C5); the remaining 5 suspects are innocent.
The deduction chain, in plain English
01.A1 · Anna → CRIMINAL
Chase’s clue says the two innocents in row 1 are connected. Chase is already one of those innocents, so the other innocent in row 1 has to be directly next to Chase, which means Bonnie or David. Anna is not next to Chase in that row, so she cannot be the second innocent. So Anna must be criminal.
02.B5 · Wally → CRIMINAL
Anna’s clue says exactly 1 cook has a criminal directly below them. That clue still needs 1 such case to be accounted for, and the only cook whose direct-below relationship still matters for this clue is Wally. So Wally has to be the cook with a criminal directly below, which makes Wally at B5 criminal.
03.B2 · Ghani → CRIMINAL, C2 · Jason → CRIMINAL, D2 · Karen → CRIMINAL
Chase says the two innocents in row 1 are connected, and Wally says Chase has exactly 4 criminal neighbors. Chase’s neighbors are Bonnie, David, Ghani, Jason, and Karen. If Bonnie and David were both criminals, then row 1 would be Anna criminal, Bonnie criminal, Chase innocent, and David criminal. That would leave Chase as the only innocent in row 1, so row 1 could not have both innocents connected. So Bonnie and David cannot both be criminals. Since Chase still needs exactly 4 criminal neighbors among those five people, the only possible exception must be one of Bonnie or David, which means Ghani, Jason, and Karen all have to be criminals. So Ghani, Jason, and Karen must be criminal.
04.D3 · Olsi → CRIMINAL
Assume Olsi were innocent. Jason’s clue says exactly 3 edge criminals are his neighbors, and among the edge neighbors of Jason that leaves Bonnie, David, and Karen as the criminal neighbors. So Bonnie and David must be criminals. But then row 1 would be Anna criminal, Bonnie criminal, Chase innocent, and David criminal. Chase’s clue says the two innocents in row 1 are connected, and that row has no second innocent for Chase to connect with. That contradiction means the assumption was wrong. So Olsi must be criminal.
05.C5 · Yasmin → CRIMINAL
Jason’s clue fixes the edge cells at exactly 10 criminals, and among the edge people who are not Jason’s neighbors there are exactly 2 innocents. That non-neighbor edge group is A2 Ellie, A3 Logan, A4 Penny, D4 Salil, A5 Vera, C5 Yasmin, and D5 Zulu. Those 2 innocents must come from A2 Ellie, A3 Logan, A4 Penny, D4 Salil, A5 Vera, and D5 Zulu, so Yasmin cannot be one of them. So Yasmin must be criminal.
06.C3 · Nala → INNOCENT
Yasmin’s clue says that Nala is one of Jason’s 3 innocent neighbors. That directly identifies Nala as innocent. So Nala must be innocent.
07.B3 · Martin → CRIMINAL
If Martin were innocent, then Jason’s neighbors would need exactly three innocents, and with Chase and Nala already innocent, Bonnie could not be innocent, so Bonnie would be criminal. Row 1 has exactly two innocents, and they must be connected. But with Anna criminal, Bonnie criminal, and Chase innocent, David would also have to be criminal, leaving Chase as the only innocent in row 1 and breaking that clue. So Martin at B3 must be criminal.
08.A3 · Logan → CRIMINAL
Chase’s clue says the two innocents in row 1 must be connected, and Olsi’s clue says exactly one row has exactly 2 criminals. If Logan were innocent, then Bonnie, David, Ellie, Penny, Quita, Ruth, Salil, Vera, and Zulu would have to fit those row requirements at the same time, but they cannot. So Logan cannot be innocent. That makes Logan criminal.
09.B4 · Quita → CRIMINAL
Zulu’s neighbors must contain exactly one innocent, and among those neighbors the only people not already known are Ruth and Salil. So that one innocent for Zulu has to be Ruth or Salil. Nala’s neighbors also must contain exactly one innocent. Nala’s neighbor list includes Ruth, Salil, and Quita, but Ruth and Salil are exactly the pair already accounting for the one innocent allowed among Zulu’s neighbors. That means Nala’s one innocent must already be in Ruth or Salil, so Quita cannot be innocent. So Quita must be criminal.
10.A4 · Penny → CRIMINAL
Row 1 must contain exactly two innocents, and they have to be connected, with Anna already criminal and Chase already innocent. Zulu’s neighbors must contain exactly one innocent, and among Ruth and Salil there is not yet any known innocent, so that clue also has to be met by the remaining people involved here. At the same time, only one row can have exactly two criminals. If Penny were innocent, then Bonnie, David, Ellie, Ruth, Salil, Vera, and Zulu would have to satisfy all of those requirements together, and they cannot. So Penny cannot be innocent. That makes Penny criminal.
11.D1 · David → CRIMINAL
Quita’s clue says the number of criminal cops equals the number of criminal mechs. The cops already have 2 criminals, Penny and Yasmin, while the mechs currently have only 1 criminal, Karen. Since David is the only mech whose identity is not yet known, he has to supply the second criminal mech. So David must be criminal.
12.B1 · Bonnie → INNOCENT
Chase’s clue says the two innocents in row 1 are connected. In row 1, Anna and David are already criminals and Chase is already innocent, so the only person who can be the second innocent there is Bonnie. That also puts the two innocents in the same row together as the clue requires. So Bonnie must be innocent.
13.D5 · Zulu → INNOCENT
Zulu’s neighbors must contain exactly one innocent, and among those neighbors the only people not yet identified are Ruth and Salil, since Yasmin is already known to be a criminal. Yasmin’s neighbors must contain an odd number of criminals, and she already has 2 known criminal neighbors, with only Ruth, Salil, and Zulu left to settle that clue. If Zulu were a criminal, then Ruth and Salil would have to satisfy both clues by themselves. But that cannot be done: those same two people would need to provide Zulu’s one innocent neighbor while also making Yasmin’s total number of criminal neighbors odd, and those requirements clash. So Zulu must be innocent.
14.A5 · Vera → CRIMINAL
Olsi’s clue says there is only one row with exactly 2 criminals. Row 1 already fits that exactly, since Anna and David are criminals while Bonnie and Chase are innocent. Row 5 already has 2 known criminals, Wally and Yasmin, and Vera is the only person there not yet identified. If Vera were innocent, row 5 would also have exactly 2 criminals, which would clash with the clue because row 1 already does. So Vera must be criminal.
15.A2 · Ellie → CRIMINAL
Karen’s clue says column A has an odd number of criminals. In column A, Anna, Logan, Penny, and Vera are already known criminals, which makes 4, and the only unknown person there is Ellie. Since 4 is even, the count can be odd only if Ellie is also a criminal. So Ellie must be criminal.
16.D4 · Salil → INNOCENT
Jason’s clue says there are exactly 10 criminals on the edge, and exactly 3 of those edge criminals are Jason’s neighbors. Those 3 are already accounted for by David, Karen, and Olsi. That leaves the other edge people who are not Jason’s neighbors: Anna, Ellie, Logan, Penny, Salil, Vera, Wally, Yasmin, and Zulu. Among that remainder, Anna, Ellie, Logan, Penny, Vera, Wally, and Yasmin are already 7 known criminals, which is the full number allowed outside Jason’s neighboring edge group. So Salil at D4 must be innocent.
17.C4 · Ruth → CRIMINAL
Logan’s clue says Zulu has exactly one innocent neighbor. Among Zulu’s neighbors, Salil is already that one known innocent, and the only neighbor there whose identity was still unknown is Ruth. Since the one innocent neighbor is already accounted for, Ruth cannot be innocent. So Ruth must be criminal.