Puzzle Pack #1 Puzzle 43 Answer

Freya’s clue says Isaac is one of two or more criminals above Nick. That directly includes Isaac among the criminals above Nick, so Isaac must be criminal.

Isaac says there are exactly 2 criminals in column A, and Isaac himself is one of them. So in column A, there is room for only 1 criminal besides Isaac. Freya says Isaac is one of two or more criminals above Nick. Among the people strictly between Adam and Tom, the ones above Nick are Eve and Isaac, and Isaac is already a known criminal there. For Isaac to be one of two or more criminals above Nick, Eve must also be a criminal. That uses up the only other criminal allowed in column A. This leaves Nick and Tom as innocents.

Freya’s clue and Nick’s clue together say that Freya’s neighbors and Vince’s neighbors contain the same number of criminals. Freya already has Isaac as a known criminal neighbor, so Vince’s neighbors must also include exactly one criminal among Olivia, Ronald, and Wanda. Tom’s clue says the number of innocents neighboring Vince in row 4 is odd. In row 4, Vince’s neighboring people are Nick, Olivia, and Ronald, and Nick is already innocent, so Olivia and Ronald must match each other to keep that row-4 innocent count odd. That means Olivia and Ronald cannot be one innocent and one criminal. Since Vince’s neighbors still need a criminal among Olivia, Ronald, and Wanda, the only way to satisfy both clues is for Olivia and Ronald to be criminals. So Olivia and Ronald must be criminals.

Freya and Vince must have the same number of criminal neighbors, but right now Freya has 1 known criminal neighbor while Vince already has 2. Olivia also says Isaac is one of Freya's exactly 3 criminal neighbors, so Freya's neighbor group has to reach 3 criminals. If Wanda were innocent, then Vince's criminal-neighbor total would stay at 2, while Freya's side would still have to meet the exact 3-criminal requirement using Adam, Barb, Carl, Eve, Gary, Jane, and Katie. That combination cannot satisfy both clues at once. So Wanda must be criminal.

Wanda’s clue says the two criminals above her in column C are connected. Ronald at C4 is already one of those criminals, so the other criminal above Wanda has to be the one next to Ronald in that column, which is Katie at C3. Carl at C1 is not next to Ronald in that line, so Carl cannot be the other criminal in that connected pair. So Carl must be innocent.

Wanda’s clue says that the two criminals above her in column C must be connected. In that column, Carl is innocent and Ronald is criminal, so the only unknown people this clue can still affect are Gary and Katie between them. For the criminals in column C to form one connected group, the criminal between Carl and Ronald has to be Katie rather than leaving a gap next to Ronald. So Katie must be criminal.

Wanda's clue says that the two criminals above her in column C must be connected. In that column, Carl is innocent, Katie and Ronald are already known criminals, and the only unknown person involved is Gary between Carl and Ronald. Since Katie and Ronald already make the two criminals in column C, Gary cannot also be a criminal. So Gary must be innocent.

Nick says Freya and Vince have an equal number of criminal neighbors. Vince’s neighbors already contain 3 criminals, while Freya’s neighbors currently have 2 known criminals, and the only unknown neighbors around Freya are Adam, Barb, Eve, and Jane. So Freya must have exactly 3 criminal neighbors in total, which means exactly one of those four unknown neighbors is a criminal. This leaves Barb and Jane as innocent.

Carl’s clue says columns A and B have the same number of innocents. Column B already has three known innocents: Barb, Freya, and Jane, while column A has only two known innocents: Nick and Tom. Since Vince is the only unknown person left in column B, Vince cannot be innocent, because that would give column B more innocents than column A. So Vince must be criminal.

Vince’s clue directly says that Sarah is one of the four criminals in column D. So Sarah must be criminal.

Vince's clue says column D has exactly 4 criminals, so that column has exactly 1 innocent. In Gary's neighborhood there are already 4 known innocents, and Ronald's clue says Gary has an odd number of innocent neighbors, so among Donald, Hilda, and Mary there must be exactly 1 more innocent. That means the single innocent in column D is among Donald, Hilda, and Mary, not Zach. So Zach must be criminal.

Vince says column D has exactly 4 criminals, so that column has exactly 1 innocent. In column D, Sarah and Zach are already criminals, and Zach’s clue says all criminals below Donald are connected. That means the single innocent in column D has to be Donald or Hilda, not Mary. So Mary must be criminal.

Freya’s clue says Isaac is one of two or more criminals above Nick. In row 2, the only person above Nick is Eve, so row 2 can contribute at most one criminal above Nick. Mary’s clue says row 2 has more innocents than any other row. Row 2 already has Freya and Gary as innocents, so it cannot also have both Eve and Hilda as criminals; otherwise row 2 would stay at only two innocents. That means Eve cannot be the second criminal needed with Isaac above Nick, so the other criminal above Nick must be Adam. So Adam must be criminal.

Isaac’s clue says he is one of exactly 2 criminals in column A. In column A, the two criminals are already Adam and Isaac, while Nick and Tom are innocent, and Eve is the only person there still unknown. Since the two criminal spots in that column are already filled, Eve cannot be a criminal. So Eve must be innocent.

Vince’s clue says there are exactly 4 criminals in column D, and column D already has 3 known criminals: Mary, Sarah, and Zach. That means the two unknown people in that column, Donald and Hilda, cannot both be innocent, because one more criminal is still needed there. Mary’s clue says row 2 has more innocents than any other row. Row 2 already has 3 known innocents, while row 1 has 2 known innocents and only one unknown, Donald. So row 1 can still reach at most 3 innocents, which means row 2 cannot stay tied at 3 and must rise to 4 innocents. The only unknown person in row 2 is Hilda, so Hilda must be innocent. With Hilda innocent, the fourth criminal required in column D has to be Donald. So Donald must be criminal and Hilda must be innocent.