Puzzle Pack #2 Puzzle 38 Answer

Aaron’s clue directly says that Flora is one of Katie’s six criminal neighbors. That identifies Flora as criminal immediately. So Flora must be criminal.

Flora’s clue says that Hilda is one of Olof’s 4 criminal neighbors. That directly identifies Hilda as a criminal. So Hilda must be criminal.

Flora’s clue says Olof has exactly 4 criminal neighbors, so among Olof’s 5 neighbors there is exactly 1 innocent. In the current state, that one innocent must be among the four still-unknown neighbors D2 Isaac, C3 Noah, C4 Tina, and D4 Uma. But from the facts already established for this step, the only people in that group who can still be that innocent are D2 Isaac, C4 Tina, and D4 Uma. So C3 Noah cannot be the innocent person there, and Noah must be criminal.

Among Olof's neighbors, there is exactly 1 innocent in total. The row 4 neighbors of Olof are Tina and Uma, and that smaller group already contains exactly 1 innocent. That means the full set of Olof's neighbors has already used up its only allowed innocent within Tina and Uma. The only other still-unknown neighbor outside that smaller group is Isaac, so Isaac cannot be innocent. So Isaac must be criminal.

In column C, Hilda at C2 and Noah at C3 are already criminals, and all criminals in that column have to form one connected block. Xena at C5 is also one of Uma's neighbors, while Vince's neighbors currently have 0 known criminals and Uma's neighbors already have 1 known criminal. If Xena were criminal, the same remaining people would have to satisfy both of those clues at once, and that cannot be done. So Xena cannot be criminal. That makes Xena innocent.

Xena’s clue directly says that Vince is one of the 3 criminals in column A. So Vince must be criminal.

Katie’s neighbors have exactly 6 criminals, and among the 5 still-unknown neighbors that means exactly 2 of them are innocent. Those 5 are Gary, Jason, Paula, Sam, and Tina. In this position, the only people in that group who can still be innocent are Gary, Jason, Paula, and Tina, so Sam cannot be one of the 2 innocents there. So Sam must be criminal.

Sam’s clue directly says that Uma is one of the exactly 2 criminals to the right of Paula. So Uma must be criminal.

Flora’s clue says Hilda is one of Olof’s exactly 4 criminal neighbors. Olof’s neighbors are Hilda, Isaac, Noah, Tina, and Uma, and among them Hilda, Isaac, Noah, and Uma are already known criminals. That already accounts for all 4 criminal neighbors from the clue, and Tina is the only still-unknown person in that group. So Tina must be innocent.

Katie’s neighbors must contain exactly 6 criminals. In that group, A2 Flora, C2 Hilda, C3 Noah, and B4 Sam are already known criminals, and from column A we know the only unknown people there, A3 Jason and A4 Paula, contain exactly 1 criminal between them. That gives Katie’s neighbor group 5 criminals accounted for, so the only remaining unknown person in Katie’s neighbors outside that column A group, B2 Gary, has to supply the last criminal. So Gary must be criminal.

Uma’s clue says there are exactly 5 innocents on the edge, and 2 edge innocents are already known, so the still-unknown edge cells must contain exactly 3 innocents. In that unknown edge group, the only people who can still be innocent are Barb, Cheryl, David, Jason, Olof, Paula, and Ziad. Wanda is not among those possible edge innocents, so she cannot be one of the 3 innocents in that group. That makes Wanda criminal.

Wanda’s clue says that the two criminals in row 1 must be connected. In row 1, Aaron is already innocent, so the only unknown people this can affect are Barb, Cheryl, and David. With Aaron breaking the left end of the row, Cheryl is the one position that has to be part of any connected pair of criminals in that row. So Cheryl must be criminal.

Isaac’s clue says Vince has more criminal neighbors than Uma. Vince’s neighbors already include 2 known criminals, while Uma’s neighbors have 1 known criminal, and the only unknown person in Vince’s neighbor set is Paula. Cheryl’s clue says Tina has exactly 2 innocent neighbors, and Tina’s neighbors already include 1 known innocent, so among the unknown neighbors there, only one of Katie, Olof, and Ziad can be innocent. With those two limits applied together to the only unknown people these clues can still affect, Paula and Katie are the ones whose statuses are already fixed by the clues. So Paula and Katie must be criminals.

Xena’s clue says Vince is one of exactly 3 criminals in column A. In column A, the three already known criminals are Flora, Paula, and Vince, and the only still-unknown person there is Jason. Since the clue’s total of 3 criminals in that column is already reached, Jason cannot be a criminal. So Jason must be innocent.

Tina’s clue says each column has at least one innocent. In column B, there are already four known criminals, and Barb at B1 is the only unresolved person left in that column. That means column B cannot have another criminal there, because then the whole column would be criminals and the clue would be broken. So Barb must be innocent.

Wanda’s clue says that the two criminals in row 1 must be connected. In row 1, Aaron and Barb are innocent, Cheryl is already a criminal, and David is the only unknown person there. Since row 1 has to contain exactly two criminals, and Cheryl is one of them, David has to be the other so that the two row-1 criminals are connected. So David must be criminal.

Vince's clue says the corner cells contain exactly 2 innocents. Right now the corners already include 1 known innocent, and the only unknown corner person left is Ziad. That means the corners still need exactly 1 more innocent, and Ziad is the only person who can fill it. So Ziad must be innocent.

Cheryl’s clue says Tina has exactly 2 innocent neighbors. Tina’s neighbors already include 2 known innocents, and the only neighbor there whose status is still unknown is Olof. Since those 2 innocent spots are already fully used, Olof cannot be innocent. So Olof must be criminal.