PORTLAND, Ore. -- A 43-year-old man convicted in a 1998 triple murder was ordered released after prosecutors dismissed the case Friday.

Polk County District Attorney Stan Butterfield said in the dismissal motion that necessary evidence against Phillip Cannon was unavailable for a retrial.

Cannon has always maintained that he did not murder Jason Kinser, Suzan Osborne and Celesta Graves, who were each shot once in the head at a rural home.

Cannon said he was relieved he had finally been released but called the entire experience "devastating."

He said his parents, brother, children and his partner, who gave birth to his youngest son while he was in prison, all stood by him the entire time.

"They had absolute confidence in my innocence," Cannon said. "They never wavered."

Earlier this year, the state approved a new trial after Cannon claimed forensic evidence was flawed. The technique that was used to analyze bullets at the murder scene has been discredited by the National Academy of Sciences and the FBI no longer uses it.

Evidence at the trial suggested Cannon knew the victims through drug use. But the evidence against him was largely circumstantial and rested heavily on the testimony of Bilma Boyd, the prosecution's key witness.

Boyd owned the property where the murders occurred, and Kinser and Osborne were working as her caretakers in exchange for rent.

Boyd alerted police after allegedly seeing smoke coming from the trailer and finding Kinser's body in the kitchen when she went inside.

The trial ended in February 2000 with a life sentence for Cannon.

Boyd later was convicted of manslaughter for the shooting death of another caretaker she claimed was molesting her teenager daughter.

Glenn Betts, Kinser's stepfather, said Friday from his home in Lakewood, Wash., that testimony from Boyd "clinched it" in convincing he and his wife, Sandra, Kinser's mother, that Cannon was guilty.

"I can honestly say we went in there with very clear, open minds and we listened to the evidence presented at the time, and my wife and I came up with the same decision that the jury did," Betts said.

Betts, 74, said his wife died earlier this year,

Betts said he would feel better about the release if there was evidence ruling out Cannon as the killer.

"If the guy is innocent, I want him out," Betts said. "But if there's any doubt about his innocence, he's been convicted and I want him in."