Puzzle Pack #1 Puzzle 36 Answer

Julie’s clue directly says that Vince is one of the innocents below Floyd. Since the clue itself names Vince as an innocent, Vince must be innocent.

Vince’s clue says Ronald has exactly 5 innocent neighbors, and none of those innocents is also Floyd’s neighbor. The only people who are both Ronald’s neighbors and Floyd’s neighbors are Kyle and Lucy. Since exactly 0 of Ronald’s innocent neighbors can be in that shared group, Kyle and Lucy cannot be innocent. So Kyle and Lucy must be criminals.

Julie says Vince is one of two or more innocents below Floyd. In the people strictly between Kyle and Vince, the only person is Paula, and there are no known innocents there yet. So Vince cannot be the only innocent in that stretch, which means Paula must be innocent.

Ronald has exactly 5 innocent neighbors. Vince also says that none of those 5 innocent neighbors is a neighbor of Floyd, and among Ronald's neighbors the only people who are also Floyd's neighbors are Kyle and Lucy, who are both already criminals, so all 5 innocent neighbors of Ronald must come from the other six neighbors: Paula, Vince, Mary, Scott, Wanda, and Xavi. That already includes Paula and Vince as known innocents, so Ronald still needs 3 more innocent neighbors chosen from Mary, Scott, Wanda, and Xavi. Kyle's clue says all innocents in column C are connected, and in column C the people between Debra and Xavi are Isaac, Mary, and Scott. With Scott in Ronald's neighborhood and in column C, this clue pins Scott into that connected innocent group in column C. So Scott must be innocent.

Ronald has exactly 5 innocent neighbors. We already know three of Ronald’s neighbors are innocent: Paula, Scott, and Vince, and the only unknown neighbors left are Mary, Wanda, and Xavi. That means those three unknown neighbors must supply the remaining two innocent neighbors Ronald needs. From this step, Mary is one of those required innocent neighbors, so Mary must be innocent.

Mary’s clue says all innocents in row 2 are connected. Julie is already an innocent in row 2, so any other innocent in that row must be joined to her through the row 2 spaces between them. The people between Floyd at A2 and Julie at D2 are Helen at B2 and Isaac at C2, and Isaac is also in row 2. So Isaac must be innocent.

Row 5 has exactly 2 innocents in total. Vince is already one of them, and among Ronald's still-unknown neighbors, Wanda and Xavi contain exactly 1 innocent, so Vince, Wanda, and Xavi already account for both innocents allowed in row 5. The only other unknown person in row 5 is Zara, so Zara cannot be innocent. So Zara must be criminal.

Mary’s clue says all innocents in row 2 are connected. In row 2, Isaac and Julie are already known innocents, and Helen is the only person strictly between Floyd and Julie besides Isaac. For the innocents in that row to form one connected group, Helen has to be innocent too. So Helen must be innocent.

Zara’s clue says Lucy has an odd number of innocent neighbors. Lucy already has 5 known innocent neighbors, and the only unknown neighbors she has are Floyd and Ronald. Since 5 is already odd, adding one innocent among Floyd and Ronald would make the total even, so neither of them can be the only innocent one. That means Floyd and Ronald must match, and in this step they are both innocent.

Floyd’s clue says row 3 has more criminals than any other row, and row 3 already contains Kyle and Lucy as criminals. The only other row that already has a criminal is row 5, with Zara, while rows 1, 2, and 4 have no known criminals at all. So for row 3 to stay ahead of every other row, Olivia has to be the third criminal in that row. That makes Olivia criminal.

Olivia’s clue says Ethan and Scott have the same number of innocent neighbors. Ethan’s neighbors already have 2 known innocents, Isaac and Julie, with only Debra still unknown. Scott’s neighbors also already have 2 known innocents, Mary and Ronald, so if Scott is to stay equal to Ethan, Scott cannot gain any more innocents among his unknown neighbors. That makes Debra innocent and Terry criminal.

Helen’s clue says column C has an odd number of innocents. In column C, Debra, Isaac, Mary, and Scott are already known innocents, which makes 4, and the only unknown person left in that column is Xavi. To make the total number of innocents in column C odd, Xavi has to be innocent. So Xavi must be innocent.

Debra’s clue says that Aaron is one of the exactly 8 innocents on the edge. Since Aaron is named directly by that clue as one of those edge innocents, Aaron must be innocent.

Ronald’s neighbors already contain exactly 5 innocents: Mary, Paula, Scott, Vince, and Xavi. Vince’s clue says none of Ronald’s 5 innocent neighbors is also Floyd’s neighbor, so the clue is talking about those same 5 innocent neighbors and no others. Since Ronald’s neighbors already have all 5 innocents accounted for, the only unknown neighbor there, Wanda, cannot be innocent. So Wanda must be criminal.

Debra’s clue says Aaron is one of exactly 8 innocents on the edge. The edge already has 7 known innocents, and the only unknown edge people are Cheryl and Ethan. So those two unknown edge spots must contain exactly one innocent and one criminal. Ronald’s clue says column D has more criminals than any other column. In column D there are already 3 known criminals, 1 known innocent, and only Ethan is unknown, so for column D to have the most criminals, Ethan has to be a criminal. That means the one remaining innocent among the two unknown edge people is Cheryl. So Ethan must be a criminal and Cheryl must be innocent.